CTO of the Quarter: Corey Ercanbrack on Digital Transformation Leadership

As CTO of cloud automation company Vasion, Corey Ercanbrack highlights something increasingly valuable and hard to come by: a leader who stays focused on building foundations that make breakthroughs scalable and implementable. His disciplined approach to transformation, combined with his ability to grow teams, products, and platforms, earned him CTO Magazine’s CTO of the Quarter.

At Vasion, Ercanbrack is helping define what that future looks like—one where intelligence is embedded into everyday business operations, where security and innovation advance together, and where technology serves people rather than forcing people to adapt to technology.

With leadership roles across Intel, LANDesk, Radiate Media, and InsideSales, Ercanbrack developed a reputation for building systems that empowered teams and simplified operations. Across sectors and industries, his goal remained the same — to build technology that helps organizations work smarter, not harder.

Ercanbrack’s journey at Vasion

When Ercanbrack joined Vasion in 2015 as Vice President of Engineering, the company was still in its growth phase. The engineering team consisted of just three engineers and a single product professional. Since then, that same organization has grown into a global operations team with more than 150 engineers and over 30 product specialists.

But numbers tell only part of the story.

Under Ercanbrack’s leadership, Vasion evolved from an emerging software provider into a global cloud platform serving more than 14,000 customers worldwide. Along the way, the company has maintained 99.9% uptime across six global regions while achieving customer retention levels that significantly exceed industry norms.

When Ercanbrack became CTO in 2016 and later expanded into the role of Chief Product and Technology Officer in 2022, he scaled the product management team from 5 product managers and 1 designer to a mature team of 30 professionals.

One of the most defining decisions of his career came in early 2026, because for Ercanbrack, leadership has never been about accumulating titles. It has always been about creating the greatest possible impact.

Recognizing the transformative potential of AI, Ercanbrack intentionally restructured his own role. He transitioned back into a dedicated CTO position, allowing a Chief Product Officer to oversee product strategy while he focused on AI architecture, innovation, and enterprise transformation.

Building at the speed of AI

Today, Ercanbrack is focused on helping Vasion’s engineers work more effectively with AI. The first step was making every engineer AI-native by providing the right training and tools. Within 15 months, AI generated 62% of the company’s code. Code output increased by 200%, pull requests per developer rose by 44%, and completed tasks/work increased by 55%.

Ercanbrack’s next goal is to move from an AI-native to an agent-native engineering culture. In this model, AI handles most of the coding work, allowing engineers to focus on designing solutions, setting direction, and solving problems.

Ercanbrack’s vision is to create a highly flexible engineering organization where teams can move faster, work across projects, and innovate without being limited by traditional silos.

Turning print into an intelligent business platform

Many technology leaders view print as a legacy process. Ercanbrack sees it differently: as one of the most underutilized automation opportunities in modern business.

He believes print is one of the few truly universal actions in the workplace. Almost every business application shares one common capability: users can click ‘File’ → ‘Print’. Employees already know how to perform this action, regardless of the software they’re using.

Ercanbrack’s idea is that instead of treating printing as the end of a process, organizations can treat it as the starting point for automation. When a user prints a document, intelligent software can automatically:

• Classify and route it to the right business system.
• Trigger approvals or workflows.
• Store it in document management platforms.
• Launch AI-powered data processing.
• Generate notifications or follow-up actions.

Here, the employee’s experience remains unchanged—they simply click ‘Print’ as they always have. Behind the scenes, the print action becomes an automation event that connects disconnected systems.

Ercanbrack believes successful transformation doesn’t happen overnight

One of the principles that has shaped Ercanbrack’s leadership is his belief that meaningful transformation happens step by step.

Many organizations approach digital transformation as a single major initiative—a big leap from old systems to new technologies. Ercanbrack sees it differently. In his experience, lasting change comes from a series of deliberate improvements that build on one another over time.

Vasion’s own journey reflects this approach. Over twelve years, Vasion progressed through a series of deliberate stages—simplifying print infrastructure, moving to SaaS, building cloud-native applications, strengthening security with Zero Trust, unifying print environments, and expanding automation before introducing AI.

Each step laid the foundation for the next, reducing complexity and risk along the way. Ercanbrack’s philosophy is simple: before rushing toward the latest technology, put the right processes, infrastructure, and culture in place; otherwise, the efforts become harder to sustain and deliver less value than expected.

The human side of scaling innovation

While Ercanbrack is passionate about technology, he believes great companies are built by great people.

When hiring, he looks beyond resumes and technical qualifications. What matters most to him is curiosity—the willingness to learn, explore new ideas, and continuously improve. Some of the best people he has hired were not necessarily the ones with the most impressive credentials, but those who showed a genuine passion for building and learning.

One of his favorite hiring stories involves a candidate whose resume was not the strongest in the applicant pool. When asked what he/she was learning outside work, the candidate pulled out a phone and showcased several side projects built purely for personal interest. For Ercanbrack, that curiosity mattered more than any certification.

He reflects on a broader belief that innovation emerges from people who continuously explore. Ercanbrack also believes that teams with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives tend to produce better ideas and stronger results.

He also acknowledges that healthy debate is essential for innovation. At work, he encourages product and engineering teams to challenge each other’s ideas and assumptions. In his view, respectful disagreement is not a sign of dysfunction—it is often where the best solutions are found.

Above all, he creates an environment where people feel comfortable experimenting, learning from mistakes, and trying new approaches. By giving teams the freedom to innovate while providing support when things don’t go as planned, he helps create a culture where both people and ideas can thrive.

His principles for building scalable, secure, and responsible enterprise AI platforms

Here are some of Ercanbrack’s guiding principles that set him apart:

Security and governance must be built into the foundation

Ercanbrack advocates for designing security into the platform from the beginning.

Under his leadership, Vasion’s platform maintains a security-first foundation that includes FedRAMP High authorization, ISO 27001 certification, SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, and alignment with emerging AI governance standards through ISO 42001.

This shows that the company has established formal policies, oversight mechanisms, and accountability structures to ensure tech is managed responsibly in practice.

The best AI is often invisible

Ercanbrack believes the real ROI doesn’t come from flashy demos or conference-stage chatbots—it comes from intelligence embedded within the workflows that power everyday operations. When AI enhances deterministic processes, it delivers measurable business value at scale.

AI should augment people, not replace them

Ercanbrack views AI as a teammate that helps employees make better decisions and work more efficiently. Especially in regulated industries, he believes humans must remain accountable for outcomes, with AI serving as an assistant rather than an autonomous decision-maker.

Trust begins with data ownership and openness

Ercanbrack underscores that even the most advanced AI systems are only as effective as the data behind them. He advocates for open architectures that give customers control over their data, storage, and AI models, reducing vendor lock-in and enabling organizations to build trust while maintaining flexibility for the future.

AI should be applied selectively and strategically

Ercanbrack emphasizes using AI where it creates measurable value rather than forcing it into simple, rule-based processes. Organizations that deploy AI thoughtfully are more likely to achieve sustainable outcomes than those chasing the latest trend.

Lessons for tomorrow’s CTOs

Corey Ercanbrack’s leadership journey offers several valuable lessons for technology leaders navigating an era defined by rapid innovation and constant disruption.

Build the foundation first. Innovation succeeds when infrastructure, security, and processes are in place.

Focus on business outcomes. Technology is only valuable when it solves real problems.

Use AI with purpose. Apply it where it delivers measurable impact.

Look for curiosity. Continuous learners drive innovation.

Keep people at the center. Technology should empower, not replace, human potential.

What distinguishes Ercanbrack is not his enthusiasm for building better tech, but his insistence that innovation must be built on strong foundations. His leadership demonstrates that lasting transformation comes from building organizations that can adapt to change, embrace innovation responsibly, and remain focused on solving real-world problems.

Those principles have guided his career through multiple technology revolutions – and they are likely to remain just as relevant for the next generation of CTOs.