1970 — 71
Georgia Institute of Technology
Education
B.S. in Industrial Engineering and an M.S. in Information & Computer Science — the engineering discipline and the computing instinct that would outlast every platform shift to come.
Systems Analyst · Architect · Builder of Edgy
Harold Gray
Chief AI & Technology Officer, Business Ingenuity. Forty-five years architecting systems — from IBM mainframes to applied AI.
I build systems where failure isn't an option — and now I'm building Edgy, where clarity is the product.
45+ yrs
Designing & building mission-critical systems
1993
Three-digit Microsoft Certified Professional — first few hundred worldwide
40B+
Transactions a year on the TSYS-scale platforms he built
15+ yrs
Architecting JEA's enterprise SharePoint environment
Now — Building
I'm building Edgy.
We apply decades of architectural rigor to a single question: how should AI actually collaborate with people? Edgy is the answer taking shape — intelligence built on the same foundations as any serious infrastructure: clarity, reliability, and design that holds up outside the demo. Not AI that impresses in a controlled setting. AI that earns its place in real work.
Original Invention · In Development
Alongside Edgy, a new and still-unpublished invention captures conversational action from how people position the elements of a conversation in a visual space — paired with AI that reads both the conversation and the intent behind it. Specifics held pending publication.
-
/ Clarity
Ambiguity is where systems fail and trust erodes — so Edgy makes intent legible, to the person and to the machine.
-
/ Systems thinking
Intelligence isn't a feature you bolt on. It's an architecture you design — with the discipline of a payment platform that can't be wrong.
-
/ AI collaboration
Not automating people out of the loop — structuring the loop so human judgment and machine capability each do what they do best.
About
Five decades of making complex systems behave
I have spent more than forty-five years doing one thing: making complicated systems work. Where that work happens has changed many times. What it is for has not.
I started on IBM 360/370 mainframes and the front ends that fed them. At The Southern Company I became chief software support for their nuclear fuel systems, where the tolerance for error is exactly zero — a discipline that never left me. From there I moved to Tandem NonStop and built large call-center platforms, including the system I built and installed for TSYS, now one of the largest payment processors on earth. In 1980 I founded AtLANta Technologies, laying broadband networks across the Southeast for NASA, Pfizer, Disney, and Michelin, and later consulted with NASA on launch-system and Space Station integration.
Then Windows NT arrived, and I made the decision that became the through-line of my career: I went all in on Microsoft. In 1993 I earned a three-digit Microsoft Certified Professional number — among the first few hundred people in the world. For fifteen-plus years I architected and supported JEA's enterprise SharePoint environment, alongside dozens of Microsoft-stack projects nationwide, from General Motors onward.
Along the way I built Clarity, software grounded in an original model for structuring human conversation. I'm still chasing that thread today at Business Ingenuity, in the work we call Edgy. The platforms have spanned generations; the conviction has stayed constant: systems should make work clearer, smarter, and more human.
“A genuinely unique invention in its own right.”
— A founder of Action Technologies, on Harold's original conversation model
The Bet
Why I bet on Microsoft early
“I'd lived every backbone before it — so when NT arrived, I recognized the next one and went all in.”
By the early 1990s I'd already run the gauntlet of enterprise computing — a decade inside IBM mainframes holding nuclear-fuel systems where error wasn't an option, fault-tolerant transaction platforms on Tandem NonStop, broadband networks for NASA, and the better part of ten years with Novell. So when Windows NT showed up, I wasn't guessing. I recognized it: the next enterprise backbone, arriving early.
I went all in. In 1993 I earned a three-digit Microsoft Certified Professional number, among the first few hundred in the world. The bet paid off for decades — SQL Server, Active Directory, and SharePoint became the connective tissue of the enterprise, and I architected on them for clients nationwide for the next twenty years.
I've learned to trust that pattern recognition. Having lived through each shift, you feel the next one coming before the market names it. That's exactly where I am now with AI-driven systems — and why I'm building Edgy. Same instinct, same conviction, a new backbone taking shape.
The Long Arc
A career in systems
From IBM 360/370 mainframes to broadband networks, payment platforms, and the enterprise Microsoft stack — five decades of building things that had to work.
1970s
The Southern Company
Chief Software Support · Nuclear Fuel Systems
~A decade on IBM 360/370 mainframes, rising to own software support for the nuclear fuel systems — a zero-tolerance-for-error environment that hard-wired a discipline for correctness.
1980
AtLANta Technologies
Founder · Broadband Networks
Built broadband networks across the Southeastern US for clients including NASA, Pfizer, Disney, and Michelin — connecting enterprises when most had never networked anything.
1980s
NASA & the Space Station
Broadband & Systems Integration
Designed broadband in support of launch systems and delivered servers and integration work for the Space Station program — mission-grade reliability at large scale.
c. 1985 — 90
Tandem NonStop — TSYS
Systems Builder
Built large call-center platforms on fault-tolerant Tandem systems, including the platform for TSYS — today one of the world's largest payment processors, clearing tens of billions of transactions a year across 875M accounts.
1990
Independent Consulting Firm
Founder · Systems Design & Development
Launched a full systems-design and development practice — broadening from infrastructure into end-to-end enterprise architecture, including systems for General Motors later in the decade.
1993
The Microsoft Pivot
Among the first MCPs worldwide
When Windows NT arrived, he moved fully onto the Microsoft stack and earned a rare three-digit MCP number — beginning a through-line that still defines his platform of choice today.
2000s — 10s
JEA — Enterprise SharePoint
Architect & Lead Support
Architected and supported a large-scale enterprise SharePoint environment for 15+ years — one of dozens of Microsoft-stack engagements delivered nationwide as SharePoint matured into modern .NET.
Ongoing
Clarity
Inventor · Conversation Systems
Built original software for structuring and coordinating conversations on a novel model — distinct enough that a founder of Action Technologies called the approach a genuine invention.
Now
Business Ingenuity — building Edgy
Chief AI & Technology Officer
Leading technology and AI strategy — pointing 45+ years of systems thinking squarely at what's next: dependable human–AI collaboration, and a new unpublished invention for working in conversation space.
The Craft
What I bring to the work
- 01Systems Design & Architecture
Whole-system thinking, from mainframe to cloud to AI. - 02Enterprise Integration
Making large, mission-critical systems work together. - 03Microsoft Technology Stack
Deep platform mastery — SharePoint to modern .NET. - 04Applied AI & Automation
Reliable human–AI collaboration, engineered to last.
MainframeBALFortranCOBOLPL/I
SystemsCC++AdaTALSQL
ModernC#PythonJavaScriptRustGo
Credentials
№ Microsoft Certified Professional
Three-digit MCP number, 1993 — among the first few hundred worldwide. Renewed 2013.
SharePoint Certified Technologist
The credential underpinning 15+ years architecting JEA's enterprise SharePoint environment.
Georgia Tech — B.I.E. & M.S.
Industrial Engineering (1970) and Information & Computer Science (1971).
Recognized Original Invention
An original conversation-coordination model — affirmed as a unique invention by a founder of Action Technologies.
Let's talk