About Me, my aspiration is to…

Intertwine my gifts and creativity to develop methods and processes to serve humankind and improve the quality of our interconnectedness.

For thirty-five years I’ve worked one intersection: where powerful technology meets institutions that people have to be able to trust. I’ve run the IT of a county of 1.2 million, advised commanders in three combat theaters, and today I build AI systems in my own lab. Every chapter taught the same lesson — adoption follows trust.

Jim Locke III — Trusted Technology Leadership | About
Open to the right mission · Columbus, OH → anywhere trust is required

Jim Locke III

Technology executive · Army officer & chaplain · AI founder

For thirty-five years I’ve worked one intersection: where powerful technology meets institutions that people have to be able to trust. I’ve run the IT of a county of 1.2 million, advised commanders in three combat theaters, and today I build AI systems in my own lab. Every chapter taught the same lesson — adoption follows trust.

35+Years in technology
1.2MConstituents served as county IT director
$140MBudget under direct & indirect oversight
3Combat theaters — Iraq · Kuwait · Syria
One story, three careers

It looks like three lives.
It’s one thesis, proven three ways.

Most careers specialize. This one triangulates — government operator, trusted advisor under fire, and hands-on builder. Choose a chapter:

Government isn’t a vertical — it’s a different physics.

As Director of IT for Franklin County, Ohio, I ran the technology that 1.2 million constituents and 3,500 county employees depended on — 75+ staff, a $10M direct budget with $130M in indirect oversight, and more than 100 applications, many of them legacy systems that could never simply be turned off.

Procurement rules. Public accountability. A dozen stakeholders who each hold a veto. I don’t know this from a sales playbook — it was my job. When an agency CIO explains why a rollout is hard, I can answer: I’ve written that policy, carried that pager, and briefed that county board.

  • Improved agency efficiency 10%+ in two years by redesigning process workflows
  • Authored the county-wide Mobile Technologies Policy for 3,500 employees — still in use
  • Initiated the county’s first enterprise disaster-recovery plan across agencies
1.2MConstituents
75+IT staff led
100+Applications managed
$140MBudget oversight

Nobody follows a leader they don’t trust.

For over fifteen years I’ve served as a commissioned officer in the Army National Guard — and as a chaplain, which means I’m the advisor leaders call when the question isn’t technical, it’s human. I’ve deployed to Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria, serving as Combined Joint Task Force OIR Command Chaplain and Deputy Operations Chaplain for ARCENT, holding an active Secret clearance throughout.

And when my brigade deployed and needed data it didn’t have, I didn’t commission a database — I built it myself, in theater, for 3,000+ soldiers. In a combat zone, trust is the operating system. I’ve found technology adoption works exactly the same way.

  • Direct support and leadership for 4,400+ soldiers; prevention-program SME across five states
  • Built the Soldier Performance Assessment database under deployment conditions
  • Meritorious Service Medal (2nd award) · Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal w/ Campaign Star
15+Years commissioned
3Combat theaters
4,400+Soldiers supported
MAJRank · O-4 · Active Secret

Not a slideware architect.

As CEO of Argos Advanced Solutions, I lead HeartID — biometric identity verification built on NASA-patented cardiac-signal technology, now piloting with state and municipal government. I designed and operate our own multi-GPU servers running local language models, and I build with frontier LLM APIs — including the Claude API — every day: grant triage, document intelligence, constituent-services agents.

Twenty-five years of consulting before that — Accenture, then my own firm serving Fortune 500 clients including BP, SBC, and McDonald’s — means I’ve spent a career translating between the people who build technology and the executives who have to trust it. When I recommend an architecture, it’s because I’ve built one like it.

  • HeartID: NASA-patented cardiac biometrics, 99%+ lab accuracy, Zero-Trust aligned
  • Designed & operates multi-GPU local LLM inference infrastructure
  • 25+ years customer-facing technical consulting, startup to Fortune 500
2NASA patents licensed
99%+Biometric lab accuracy
6Active products & platforms
DailyHands-on LLM API builds
The evidence matrix

What hiring teams ask for.
What the record shows.

Evidence over adjectives. Match the requirement to the résumé:

The requirementThe record
Prior state & local government experience I ran a county’s IT — 1.2M constituents, 3,500 employees, 100+ applications, $10M direct / $130M indirect budget.
Years in customer-facing technical roles 25+ years across Accenture, my own consulting firm, and Argos — clients from startups to BP, SBC, and McDonald’s.
Complex, multi-stakeholder buying cycles That was my Tuesday. I’ve written the procurement policy, carried the pager, and briefed the county board — from the government’s side of the table.
Technical content for every audience I’ve briefed everyone from privates to boards of commissioners — a chaplain’s cadence with an engineer’s accuracy.
Hands-on AI fluency I build with frontier LLM APIs daily and operate my own multi-GPU local-model servers. Not AI-curious — AI-practicing.
Trust under real pressure 15+ years a commissioned officer; Iraq, Kuwait, Syria; active Secret clearance held throughout.
Building now

The proof is running in my lab.

Current, hands-on work — not a portfolio of memories.

HeartID — cardiac biometric identity

Identity verification from a person’s unique heart-rhythm signature, built on two NASA-licensed patents with homomorphic encryption and inherent liveness proof — deepfake-resistant by physics, not policy. In pilot with state and municipal government.

Active pilots · Zero-Trust aligned

Multi-GPU local LLM infrastructure

I designed and operate my own multi-GPU inference servers running open-source language models entirely on-premises — the architecture conversation government buyers actually want to have, answered from experience.

Operational · Self-built

Frontier-API agents in production use

Daily builds with frontier LLM APIs — including the Claude API — for grant-application triage, document intelligence, and constituent-services workflows aimed squarely at public-sector pain points.

Daily practice · Applied AI

Prevention data platforms at scale

Data-driven assessment and reporting infrastructure supporting integrated prevention programs across a five-state military region — technology in service of measurable human outcomes for 4,400+ soldiers.

Five states · Human outcomes
The working archive

Three decades of building.
Open what interests you.

Pulled from the actual working files — prototypes, platforms, programs, and a few pursuits that keep the engineering honest. Filter by area, expand what you want to see.

25Projects & programs
16Active or in build
5Disciplines

The pattern across all of it: find the real problem, build the working answer, keep what earns its place. Today that means identity you can’t spoof, gear you can’t lose, grants that get funded, ballots you can verify, and sound you can steward.

AI & IdentityBiometrics · local models · agentic workflows 4
HeartID / CardiacID — cardiac biometric identityActive pilot

Identity verification from a person’s unique heart-rhythm signature, built on two NASA-licensed patents with homomorphic encryption and liveness proven by physics. In pilot with state and municipal government; Zero-Trust aligned.

NASA-patented99%+ lab accuracyGov pilots
HeartID for Apple WatchIn development

Wrist-native prototype bringing cardiac authentication to the sensor people already wear — Swift/watchOS development, hands-on in Xcode, alongside the CardiacID iOS builds.

Swift · watchOSHands-on code
Local LLM inference labOperational

Self-designed multi-GPU servers running open-source language models entirely on-premises — the sovereignty-and-privacy architecture government buyers ask about, answered from a machine I built.

Multi-GPUOn-premSelf-built
Agentic AI development practiceDaily

Daily builds with frontier LLM APIs — including the Claude API — plus AI pair-engineering workflows for grant triage, document intelligence, and constituent-services automation.

Claude APIApplied AI
Government & Civic TechCounty scale · ballots · connectivity · telehealth 5
Franklin County modernization portfolioDelivered

100+ applications stabilized and modernized for 1.2M constituents; county-wide Mobile Technologies Policy still in use; the county’s first enterprise disaster-recovery plan; 10%+ efficiency gains in two years.

1.2M servedPolicy author
Sentry Mobile — secure verified votingIn development

A civic-tech thread running back over a decade — “Count Our Ballot” concepts matured into Sentry Mobile: blockchain voter records, HeartID-verified identity, and printed audit trails at the Board of Elections. Voting as secure as banking, as accessible as texting.

BlockchainElection integrity
TeleMedicine access designConcept → practice

Early telehealth delivery designs for underserved communities — years before the pandemic made remote care mainstream. Human-centered access questions first, technology second.

Health equityEarly mover
Municipal Mobile WiFi initiativeProposal

Connectivity planning for communities on the wrong side of the digital divide — mobile WiFi deployment models developed through 2021.

Digital divide
Urban Cyber Strategies & interim-CIO practiceConsulting

Fractional CIO engagements and cybersecurity program design for organizations that need enterprise-grade judgment without an enterprise headcount — policies, systems, and training built around how people actually behave.

Fractional CIOSecurity programs
Defense & MilitaryBuilt in theater · data for soldiers · readiness 5
Soldier Performance Assessment databaseDelivered in theater

Designed and built under deployment conditions at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, for 3,000+ soldiers of Task Force Pale Rider — commanders got data-driven visibility no off-the-shelf system was giving them.

3,000+ usersCombat zone build
Chaplain Corps care databaseLong-running

A self-built FileMaker system for tracking pastoral care across a battalion — quietly digitizing ministry logistics years before anyone called it digital transformation.

FileMakerCare at scale
IPP/P3 prevention data platformActive

Assessment tools, dashboards, and reporting infrastructure supporting integrated prevention — suicide, harassment, violence, abuse — across a five-state region and 4,400+ soldiers.

5 statesHuman outcomes
OCIE — Soldier equipment managementNear ship

Offline-first app that reconciles a soldier’s issued OCIE gear against DA Form 3645 using on-device Vision OCR — the best-engineered app in the Argos portfolio, on the launch punch list for unit pilots and Army innovation channels.

Vision OCROffline-firstxTech path
Mission Sync — “Everything but the Mission”Live demo

Guard unit management app that attacks the coordination overhead surrounding annual training — born from fifteen years of watching exactly where readiness friction actually lives.

ReadinessLive demo
Community & EducationMentorship · literacy · funded programs · stewardship 6
BDPA youth technology competition mentorship16+ years

Sixteen-plus years preparing young competitors to design, build, and defend working software under pressure — human problem first, code second.

STEM pipeline
Digital literacy programs — Seniors-2-Seniors & Cyber SeniorsDelivered

Curriculum design and delivery with an Ohio State University partnership — peer-taught digital literacy that met seniors where they were, from device basics to online safety.

OSU partnershipCurriculum design
Grant-writing & program funding portfolio25-year trail

A working archive of proposals, budgets, and executive summaries written for community organizations — youth programs, ministries, wellness initiatives — spanning two and a half decades of turning ideas into funded programs.

ProposalsBudgets
GrantAp — grant acquisition as a serviceActive service

The productized form of that 25-year proposal trail, offered through Argos Advanced Solutions Inc. — flat-fee engagements only, never a percentage of the award, with a free SBIR/STTR readiness assessment as the front door.

Flat-fee ethicsSBIR/STTR readiness
Audio Safe — sound stewardship reportingActive service

A report-first sound-safety service that turns measurements — from phones, calibrated meters, and dosimeters — into simple, defensible stewardship and accessibility reports for worship spaces and venues. Every report grades its own evidence quality; the language stays honest: screening and stewardship, not compliance claims.

Evidence-gradedAccessibilityWorship spaces
Building Foundations of Faith & AME Conference technologyActive

Digital platform and curriculum for men in urban communities, plus technology planning and logistics for one of the largest gatherings in Black church history — the AME General Conference.

Platform + curriculumEvent tech at scale
Ventures & CraftA 25-year firm · flight ops · sound · sustainable ideas 5
Team Omega Incorporated25 years

Founded at 25 and led for twenty-five years: a full-service technology consulting and multimedia firm serving clients from small business to Fortune 500 — the incubator for everything since.

FounderFortune 500 clients
engine•newite & Sky Solar — sustainability venturesVentures

Full business prospectuses for green-energy and property-revitalization ventures — evidence of a habit: when Jim sees a gap, he writes the plan, forms the LLC, and builds the brand himself.

Business plansBrand design
Aviation — 1974 Rockwell Commander 112APilot & owner

Owns and flies N1156J. Aviation is checklists, systems thinking, and calm under weather — the same discipline that runs the rest of the portfolio, practiced at altitude.

Systems discipline
HangarManager ProIn development

Hangar and tenant management for general aviation — leases, occupancy, and operations in one place. Built by an aircraft owner who has lived the paper-and-spreadsheet version of the problem firsthand.

GA operationsFounder–user fit
Music & media productionOngoing craft

Audio production and video work — from Max and iZotope in the studio to producing IT-security training films in Final Cut. The BFA in design never stopped working.

AudioVideoDesign roots
Range

Depth where it matters.

Government & public-sector fluencyCounty CIO · procurement · policy
Executive communicationPrivates to boards of commissioners
Client-facing technical consulting25+ yrs · Fortune 500 to city hall
Crisis & high-stakes leadershipThree combat theaters
Applied AI & LLM systemsLocal inference + frontier APIs, daily
Human-centered designBFA Industrial Design · Pforzheim, Germany
“In a combat zone, nobody follows a leader they don’t trust. I’ve found technology adoption works exactly the same way.— Jim Locke III
The perspective I add

Seeing the people on the other end of the system.

Public-sector AI will touch benefits, records, and public safety. Deploying it well means seeing all of the people on the other end of the system — and I’ve spent six decades living across the communities that public technology is supposed to serve, then turned that lived understanding into a professional discipline: cultural competency consulting.

I’ve built a career translating between worlds that don’t share a vocabulary — engineers and elected officials, commanders and congregations, builders and the communities they build for. That’s not a soft skill. In this work, it’s an architecture requirement.

Cultural competency as professional practice — not a footnote
Translator between technical, civic, military & faith communities
Ethics training (M.Div.) applied to real deployment decisions
The journey

Three decades, one direction.

2020 — Present
CEO & Partner
Argos Advanced Solutions, Inc.

Applied-AI firm: biometric identity (HeartID), immersive training platforms, local LLM infrastructure, and AI strategy for government and enterprise clients.

2009 — Present
Major · Chaplain
U.S. Army National Guard

Commissioned officer; deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria; CJTF Command Chaplain (OIR) and Deputy Operations Chaplain, ARCENT. Active Secret clearance.

2013
Master of Divinity
Payne Theological Seminary

Ethics, organizational management, pastoral care — the ethical framework beneath every leadership role since.

2010 — 2012
Director of Information Technology
Franklin County Data Center · Columbus, OH

County-wide technology strategy: 75+ staff, $140M direct/indirect budget oversight, 100+ applications, 1.2M constituents. Gartner CIO Academy, 2012.

1991 — 2010
Founder · President & CEO
Team Omega Incorporated + Accenture (1991–99)

Technology consulting and multimedia for Fortune 500 clients and government agencies; teams of 9–25; 38% margins on billable work.

1991
BFA, Industrial Design & Media Communications
University of Illinois · Pforzheim School of Design, Germany

Human-centered design training that still shapes every system I build.

Let’s talk

I’ve spent a career earning trust.
I’m ready to put it to work.

If you’re building technology that institutions and the public must be able to trust — I’d like to hear about it. Résumé, references, and a full portfolio are available on request.

Available for applied-AI, GTM & public-sector technology roles
Jim Locke III · Digital Chaplain
“To intertwine my gifts, creativity and knowledge to develop methods and processes to serve humankind.”

Contact

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