# About Travis Schindel **I came to AI through operations.** I bring two decades of experience across Indigenous engagement, government, mining, telecommunications, and infrastructure in Northern Canada, along with hands-on enterprise AI work. I've seen technology projects succeed or fail based on more than the technology. Governance, procurement, staffing, and the needs of people doing the work matter just as much. That experience shapes how I help organizations plan and use AI. ## The short version I'm Travis Schindel, the founder of Travis Consulting. I've spent the last several years leading enterprise AI enablement inside large Canadian operations, and the two decades before that in Indigenous engagement, government, mining, and telecom across the North. I bring all of it to your organization. I started in Nunavut, auditing the books of Inuit-led municipalities. From there: the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, two diamond miners, seven years inside Canadian telecom infrastructure, and now enterprise operations and AI enablement. Two things held true the whole way. Technology is never the point; the people using it are. And the communities I worked with in Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region taught me to listen first, decide by discussion, and work with what's on hand. That shapes every engagement. ## What experience taught me: three lessons from the work The career chapters below tell the story. These are the three things it taught me. 1. **Good technology still needs a workable plan.** Projects can stall because the buying process, governance, or day-to-day workflow was not considered early enough. I start with the people and conditions around the work, then choose the tools. 2. **Design for real constraints.** Every organization has limits on time, budget, connectivity, staff capacity, and data use. A useful plan accounts for those limits at the start. 3. **Ask the questions a buyer would ask.** My background includes audit, environmental review, procurement, and operations. I bring that perspective to vendor choices: what does the tool do, what does it cost, what risks does it add, and what happens after the contract ends? ## Independence: every engagement starts with a conflicts check Before I accept any engagement, it goes through a documented conflicts check, the same discipline law and accounting firms apply before taking on a client. I look at who you are and who else I have obligations to. Then I ask whether anything could affect the work or how it is viewed. If a conflict can't be managed, I decline the work or refer you to someone good. Independence also shapes what I sell. I take no commissions or referral fees from Microsoft or Anthropic. If another commercial relationship could affect a recommendation, I name it next to that vendor whenever it makes your shortlist, and I disclose it before you decide. Anything that could bear on my objectivity for your specific engagement is disclosed to you in writing before scoping. Engagement letters set out the relevant confidentiality and conflict terms. ## Career proof, at a glance - **Twenty years** of Indigenous, government, mining, telecom, and infrastructure operations across Northern Canada - **Buyer's side:** audit, review boards, procurement, operations: more time spent evaluating vendors than being one - **Northern-rooted:** continuous operating experience across NWT, Nunavut, Yukon - **Built to leave:** every engagement scoped to hand the skills to someone on your team ## Career chapters ### Chapter 01 · 2007–2010 · Community & governance in the North Municipal inspector for the Government of Nunavut, auditing financial, legislative, and administrative performance of five predominantly Inuit municipalities. Then community-project manager at the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, leading consensus-based consultations across six Inuvialuit communities. The Nunavut work was guided by the Government of Nunavut's Inuit Societal Values. ### Chapter 02 · 2010–2014 · Environmental review & resource sector Executive Advisor and Head of Communications at the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (acting as Executive Director when needed). Then contracts and procurement leadership at two diamond miners, directing major contract portfolios across the Snap Lake, Gahcho Kué, and Ekati mines. ### Chapter 03 · 2015–2022 · Telecommunications & northern infrastructure Seven years across Canadian telecom: process planning, customer service, senior project management. Earned PMP®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and a Project Management Certification in these years. Led the Northwestel business unit that delivered the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link. That was a multi-year northern infrastructure build across the NWT. Led a national IT infrastructure refresh program across Bell's franchise network. Represented Canada at SpaceOps 2018 in Marseille on space-exploration technology. ### Chapter 04 · 2023–present · Enterprise operations & AI enablement Senior operations work inside large Canadian infrastructure, covering capital-project portfolios, Indigenous-relations program work, and enterprise AI pilots across business units. Hands-on with AI assistants, agentic workflows, and what it actually takes to deploy AI where procurement, audit, and data-residency rules are strict. That is the experience behind how Travis Consulting scopes engagements: built to survive procurement, and built to leave a team that can run without me. ## Credentials ### Education - Bachelor of Management, University of Lethbridge - Diploma in Business Administration, Lethbridge Polytechnic ### Project & leadership - PMP® (Project Management Professional), Project Management Institute - Project Management Certification, Mount Royal University - CSM® (Certified ScrumMaster), Scrum Alliance - Workplace Mental Health Leadership Certificate, Queen's University - Governance Essentials for Directors, University of Toronto ### AI & generative tech - AI Development of Interactive Experiences, UBC micro-certification - AI-Powered Automation & Personalization, UBC micro-certification - Generative AI Overview for PMs, PMI - Talking to AI: Prompt Engineering for PMs, PMI - Data Landscape of GenAI for PMs, PMI ### Indigenous & reconciliation - Indigenous Consultation & Engagement, Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. - Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples®, Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. - 4 Seasons of Reconciliation, First Nations University of Canada - The Path: Your Journey Through Indigenous Canada, NVision --- *PMP® and "Project Management Professional" are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®) is a registered mark of Scrum Alliance, Inc. Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples® is a registered mark of Indigenous Corporate Training Inc.* ## Contact If your organization is deciding what to do about AI, tell me what is on your mind. We can work out whether a conversation or a defined project would help. - Email: connect@travisconsult.com - Book a 15-minute call: [/contact#book](/contact#book)