Buell arrives at the San Francisco-based firm following a career centered on enterprise technology and consulting delivery. As a co-founder of Hakkōda, which IBM acquired in 2025, he previously held the roles of Vice President of Consulting and Chief Innovation Officer. His background also includes an eight-year tenure at Kaiser Permanente, where he managed enterprise data systems. CEO Stephen Garden noted that Buell’s experience in both consultancy building and internal enterprise operations makes him well-suited to guide the firm’s engineering staff through complex production challenges.

In his new capacity, Buell will oversee the development of engineering practices intended to standardize how teams handle client deployments. His appointment follows Eliza’s recent naming as an OpenAI Advanced Partner and the hiring of Lori Borg as Chief Operating Officer. The company currently focuses on embedding its own teams within client organizations to manage the full lifecycle of AI adoption—from initial use-case selection to full system integration and staff training.