Ian Palonis

About Ian Palonis

I have spent the better part of two decades inside complex organisations, most recently at WEX, figuring out why capable teams still struggle to deliver. The answer is almost always the same: the system they are working inside was not designed to help them succeed. Fix the system, and most of the friction disappears. That thinking is what led me to start Viridian Guard. Most small businesses are running on rented technology. Per-seat SaaS tools that get more expensive every year, owned by vendors who have no stake in the business, generating costs that grow faster than the company does. The data lives somewhere else. The pricing changes at renewal. When something breaks, someone else decides when it gets fixed. We help business owners stop renting and start owning. File storage, email, collaboration, networking, access control: deployed on infrastructure they control, documented so they understand it, priced so it costs less than what they were paying before. At WEX I work on the future of how product teams use AI. At Viridian Guard I work on giving small businesses the infrastructure foundation they need to do the same. Those two things are more connected than they might appear. Based in Maine. If your IT bill keeps climbing and you are not sure what you are getting for it, it is well worth having a conversation with me to see how I can help.

Experience

1. Chief Executive Officer

   Viridian Guard

   Nov 2025 — Present · Portland, ME, US

   Most small businesses are paying monthly for technology they do not own, do not fully understand, and cannot easily change. I started Viridian Guard to fix that.As CEO, I lead the strategy and delivery of everything we build: bespoke IT infrastructure that replaces SaaS dependency with owned, documented systems that cost less and work better. My work sits at the intersection of system architecture, business operations, and the belief that a small business owner should understand and control the technology their company runs on.What that looks like in practice: designing infrastructure environments from first principles, building roadmaps that eliminate vendor lock-in, and working directly with business owners to make sure technology is serving their goals, not the other way around.We are based in Rumford, Maine. We work with small and mid-sized businesses that are ready to stop renting their infrastructure and start owning it.

Education

• Juniata College

  BA French and Mathematics, French Language and Mathematics

  2000 — 2004

Skills

• Leadership
• Agile Methodologies
• Management
• Program Management
• Technical Writing
• Software Development Life Cycle (Sdlc)
• Certified Scrum Master Csm
• Agile Web Development
• French
• Banking
• Project Planning
• Video Production
• Scaled Agile Framework
• Process Improvement
• Requirements Analysis
• Debit Cards
• Technical Support
• Agile & Waterfall Methodologies
• Translation
• Project Management
• Scrum
• Relationship Management
• Financial Transactions
• Agile Project Management
• Requirements Gathering
• Project Coordination
• Integration
• Project Delivery
• Account Management
• Credit Cards
• Electronic Payments
• Microsoft Office
• Credit Card Transaction Processing
• Business-to-Business (B2b)
• Software Project Management
• Software Documentation
• Agile Application Development