John Hathaway

IT leader by day. Technical founder by night. Professional DJ for over two decades. I build things that work -- infrastructure, software, and dance floors.

IT Director / Security Technical Founder 20+ Year DJ
About

I've spent over two decades leading IT teams in regulated industries -- healthcare, banking, travel, energy. Building infrastructure, running security programs, getting through SOC 2 audits, integrating companies after acquisitions. The kind of work where getting it wrong has real consequences.

On nights and weekends, I've been a professional DJ since my early twenties. Over a thousand events -- weddings, corporate, clubs, everything. That side of my life created real business problems that nobody was solving well: metadata chaos across DJ software, booking pipelines held together with spreadsheets, no good tools for managing the entertainment business end-to-end.

So I started building. Not with a team or funding -- just me and AI as a force multiplier. I architect the systems, direct the implementation, review every line, and debug at the source level. Nine active projects and counting, from a 50,000-line desktop application to a personal life-ops system that texts me when I'm slacking. The IT background gives me the discipline. The DJ career gives me the problems worth solving.

20+
years in IT
20+
years DJing
9
active projects
50k+
lines shipped
What I Build

TrackMaster DJ

Active

Desktop toolkit for DJs -- metadata management, hot cue generation, key detection, and library sync across 5 major DJ platforms.

Python PyQt6 SQLite GitHub Actions

ShowGo

Active

Self-hosted event management platform -- booking pipeline, contracts, payments, planning forms, and workflow automation for entertainment professionals.

Laravel 12 Alpine.js Tailwind CSS SQLite

AI MasterMind

Stable

Multi-AI consensus tool that queries 8 LLMs simultaneously for cross-validated answers. Batch processing, cost tracking, and weighted scoring.

Python PyQt6 REST APIs

HathLab

Stable

Privacy-first browser tools -- PDF signing, image processing, QR generation, video-to-GIF, invoice builder. All client-side, no uploads.

JavaScript Canvas API Web Workers PDF.js

Music Library Engine

Active

LLM-powered DJ crate builder. Extracts metadata from 13k+ tracks, enriches via multi-source consensus, generates smart playlists.

Python Gemini GPT-4o Perplexity

hath.app

Building

Personal life-ops system -- task management, scheduled notifications, accountability check-ins. SMS and web chat interface with NLP command parsing.

PHP SQLite Claude API OpenPhone
Experience
Corporate IT

20+ years of progressive IT leadership across banking, healthcare, travel, energy, and aviation. From sysadmin to VP.

Founder + DJ

Running Elation Entertainment since the early 2000s. Building production software products since 2024.

Vice President, Security Operations

2024 -- present

Banking

Director of IT, Infrastructure & Security

2021 -- 2024

Healthcare / Professional Administration

Led IT infrastructure, security, and operations for a 200+ person organization. Built and executed information security program culminating in SOC 2 Type 2 attestation. Managed hybrid on-premises/Azure environment and $1M budget.

IT Operations Manager

2020 -- 2021

Healthcare / Home-Delivery Pharmacy

Restructured IT operations for regulatory compliance. Implemented DR/BCP strategy, new security program, and automated help desk workflows for a 300-workstation environment.

IT Operations Manager

2018 -- 2020

Aviation / Flight Intelligence SaaS

Directed 24/7 operations and DevOps support for SaaS products. Stood up new datacenter, led Azure cloud migration, and consolidated infrastructure.

Director of IT, North America

2016 -- 2018

Business Travel Management

Oversaw IT for 750 employees across 20+ locations. Integrated 7 acquired companies, stood up 2 datacenters, achieved PCI compliance. Directed staff of 10-12 engineers. Won company-wide top performer award.

Vice President, IT Manager

2014 -- 2016

Community Banking

Recruited back to rebuild IT department after turnover. Drove procedural and security improvements that led to bank's first highest-score Division of Banks exam. Cut managed services costs 40%.

Assistant Vice President, IT

2007 -- 2014

Energy Consulting

Built in-house IT department from scratch, replacing managed services. Promoted twice in six years (IT Manager to Director to AVP). Department voted company's top-rated in 2009. Generated 25X ROI on a secure file-transfer capability.

Early Career

2002 -- 2007

Manufacturing + Community Banking

Systems Administrator and Technology Generalist. Started in the trenches -- hardware, networking, user support, server administration.

Education &
Credentials

University of Massachusetts Lowell

MBA, Information Technology

BS, Business Administration (MIS + Finance)

Certifications

CISSP Security+ CCNA MCSE AZ-900 AWS CCP ITIL
Contact

Let's talk.

Whether it's about IT leadership, a software project, or booking a DJ for your event -- I'm always open to a conversation.