M. Shad Collins
Enterprise Growth Architect | CIO

When Your Business Is Ready to Scale, I Make Sure It Can.

For nearly four decades, Shad Collins has worked at the intersection of strategy, technology, and operations, helping organizations move beyond fragmented execution to build integrated systems that deliver sustainable growth.

His career began early. At fifteen, he launched his first company building computers and technology solutions for small businesses. That early obsession with how things connect, systems, people, and results, became the foundation of a lifelong focus on integration and outcomes.

Shad built his technical foundation at Digital Equipment Corporation, Midstate Mills, and BellSouth, where he learned enterprise-scale design and led large, cross-functional deployments. His work for companies including Procter & Gamble, Fidelity, Whirlpool, and Florida Power & Light established him as a leader who could translate technical complexity into business clarity at Fortune 100 scale.

As VP, Information Management and a corporate officer at Bojangles' Restaurants, Shad helped guide the company from a regional chain into a national brand with 650+ locations and 19,000+ annual employees. He led enterprise-wide POS modernization, proprietary ERP development, data warehousing, and business intelligence initiatives. His teams consistently exceeded Tier 1 audit and PCI-DSS standards, and the operating infrastructure he built supported the company's successful $710M IPO in 2015.

Shad founded Digital Alchemy Solutions, providing integration and modernization services for mid-market organizations across insurance, restaurants, manufacturing, and municipal government. He subsequently served as SVP and CIO, and corporate officer, at Frederick Mutual Insurance Company, where he led the company's expansion from 2 to 5 states, launched new product lines, and drove significant revenue growth, all while modernizing the full technology stack and substantially reducing IT spend.

Most recently, Shad served as VP of Information Management at Meridian, a nationwide services organization operating across all 50 states and serving Fortune 100 clients. As a member of the executive leadership team, his scope extended well beyond technology, encompassing Enterprise Capabilities, Transformation, Quality Assurance, and Custom Equipment Manufacturing and Logistics. Brought in to assess, re-architect, and rebuild the company's enterprise foundation, he established the operating systems, process discipline, and scalable infrastructure that positioned the organization for successful acquisition by a publicly traded multinational.

Through Shad Collins LLC, he works directly with CEOs, senior leadership teams, and private equity firms as an Enterprise Growth Architect, helping organizations integrate people, process, and technology into coherent, scalable systems that perform reliably and deliver outcomes that last.

Shad leads with integrity, clarity, and a bias toward execution. He believes every organization works better when people understand the purpose, processes align with reality, and technology amplifies, not hinders, the outcomes the business needs.