NWA C-Suite: Aaron Shew - Talk Business & Politics
Business
- Agriculture
- Education
- Energy
- Finance
- Health care
- Manufacturing
- Startups / Technology
- Retail
- Tourism / Heritage
Politics
- Regions
- Central Arkansas
- Northeast Arkansas
- Fort Smith Metro Daily News
- Northwest Arkansas
NWA C-Suite Interviews
Aaron Shew: Chief Technology Officer, Acres, Fayetteville
Shew leads the technology and product strategy behind one of the country’s leading land intelligence platforms. Under his leadership, Acres has scaled to bring together more than 13,000 data layers, over 1,000 data sources, and billions of data points across more than 150 million U.S. parcels, supporting billions of dollars in land decisions annually.
Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received from a mentor?
One of the best things about being human is that you can change. You can change your mind, change what you like, and change what you do. I’ve found this applies to just about everything in life, but particularly when building, managing, and leading teams. It’s important to continuously evaluate how you think about things and be ready to change when new opportunities arise.
Q: What is your go-to cure for a bad case of decision fatigue?
Tough question! This changes frequently, but currently, a hard trail run is the best way I've found to cut through the noise. Walking away to do something physically challenging and not thinking about the myriad problems at hand is often the fastest path to clarity for me. I also try to remember that many decisions aren’t final, so it’s better to act and adapt than wait for more information. Beyond that, having a strong and collaborative team is a major advantage in high-pressure times when decision velocity matters most.
Q: If you could trade places with any employee in your company for a day, which role would you pick and why?
I’d likely choose to be a systems/data solutions engineer (assuming all the skills transfer over), because they get to play with all the latest tech. Optimizing our on-premise, mini data center and leveraging the newest AI tooling for everything data.