Board Director
Rasheid Karl Scarlett
Board director who helps boards get technology right before the money is spent, not after something breaks. Twenty-five years in mission-critical networks, now applied to AI, cyber, and infrastructure oversight.
Boards
Current boards.
Legends Charter School
Board Chair
Chairs the board of a K-8 public charter school in Prince George's County, Maryland, serving more than 900 students.
FirstNet Authority Board
Board Member
Appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Chair, Programs and Future Planning Committee. Member, Finance and Investment Committee.
Forbes Business Council
Member
Invitation-only council for senior business leaders. Has published on Forbes.com on leadership and digital transformation.
Insights
Thinking on what matters.
Do Everything With Love: What It Actually Means in Technology
Do everything with love is not sentiment. It is excellence and care, and the discipline of building technology with people instead of for them.
Read Article →What Boards Get Wrong About AI Oversight
Most boards treat AI as a technology question. It is a governance question. The three plain questions every director should ask about AI oversight.
Read Article →Cybersecurity Is a Fiduciary Duty, Not an IT Line Item
A data breach is a governance failure, not just an IT failure. Why cybersecurity oversight is now a core fiduciary duty of the board.
Read Article →Quantum Is Coming. Here Is What I Am Telling Boards.
A quantum computer that breaks today's encryption does not exist yet. That is exactly why boards need to act now. The threat is harvest now, decrypt later.
Read Article →Critical Infrastructure in the AI Age
AI is being added to the systems people depend on most. The real question is not how capable it is, but how safe it is when it fails.
Read Article →Public Safety Technology: Built for the Worst Moment
Public safety technology is held to the wrong standard. It must work in the worst moment, when everything else fails.
Read Article →Group Economics: Why Income Is Not Wealth
Closing the wealth gap is treated as an individual project. It is structural. Income is not wealth. The missing layer is ownership, pooled and shared.
Read Article →Operating Background
Building technology firms since 2005.
NetAesthetics
Founder and CEO
IT development and consulting firm serving federal government agencies and private sector clients.
Great Dwellings
Founder • Exited January 2025
Areas of Expertise
Where technology meets governance.
Twenty-five years in mission-critical networks, now applied to AI, cyber, and infrastructure oversight.
AI Governance
- Board AI Oversight
- AI Investment Decisions
Cybersecurity & Critical Infrastructure
- Cybersecurity Oversight
- Critical Infrastructure
- Incident Readiness
Technology Risk & Transformation
- Technology Risk
- Digital Transformation
- Building With People, Not For Them
Published Work
In print and on the record.
Selected articles and interviews.
Speaking
Briefings and talks.
Board workshops, executive briefings, and keynotes on AI governance, cybersecurity oversight, and critical infrastructure.
AI Governance for Boards
How directors can exercise meaningful oversight of AI adoption without becoming technologists. A framework for asking the right questions, reading the right signals, and setting the right boundaries.
Cybersecurity as Fiduciary Duty
Why cybersecurity belongs in the boardroom, not just the server room. A practical guide for directors navigating the intersection of risk, regulation, and reputation.
Critical Infrastructure in the AI Age
What the systems people depend on most teach about reliability, failure, and oversight, and how any board can apply that standard.
Do Everything With Love
A leadership philosophy built on excellence, not emotion. How operating with care and precision creates organizations that endure.
In the Press
Recognition and appearances.
About
Who is Rasheid Scarlett?
"Excellence is not a feeling. It is a decision you make before the work begins."
Rasheid Scarlett is a board director who helps boards get technology right before the money is spent, not after something breaks. He brings twenty-five years across Verizon, AT&T, Accenture, and KPMG, and a habit of asking how every decision lands on the people a system serves.
He is Founder and CEO of NetAesthetics and has been building technology firms since 2005. He founded Great Dwellings and exited it in January 2025.
He is Board Chair of Legends Charter School, a K-8 public charter school in Prince George's County, Maryland, with more than 900 students. He serves on the FirstNet Authority Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, where he chairs the Programs and Future Planning Committee and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee. He is a member of the Forbes Business Council.
Earlier, he was a network architect at Verizon and AT&T and a consultant at Accenture and KPMG. He began his career deploying secure networks to U.S. Government facilities worldwide.
He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Wheaton College (1999). His governance education includes the UCLA Anderson Board Director Program (NACD-accredited, 2026), NACD Virtual Director Professionalism, Georgetown McDonough's Tech Innovator: Mastery & Business Innovation in a Digital Era, and the BoardSource Certificate of Nonprofit Board Education.
He is a former board member of Kindred Communities (2017–2019), a nonprofit focused on educational opportunity, and has mentored through BUILD and Microsoft programs.
His guiding philosophy: Do everything with love.
Why I do this work
I grew up on the move, across many parts of the country. My start was closer to hardship than to boardrooms.
That distance shaped how I work. I learned early that excellence is a decision, not a circumstance. I build and govern technology with care because I know what is at stake when systems fail the people who depend on them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Plain answers to common questions.
Who is Rasheid Scarlett?
Rasheid Scarlett is a board director who helps boards get technology right before the money is spent, not after something breaks. He brings twenty-five years across Verizon, AT&T, Accenture, and KPMG, and a habit of asking how every decision lands on the people a system serves.
What boards does Rasheid Scarlett serve on?
Rasheid Scarlett is Board Chair of Legends Charter School, a K-8 public charter school in Prince George's County, Maryland, with more than 900 students. He serves on the FirstNet Authority Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, where he chairs the Programs and Future Planning Committee and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee. He is a member of the Forbes Business Council.
What does Rasheid Scarlett focus on as a director?
Board oversight of AI governance, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, technology risk, and digital transformation. His view is that the board's best moment to shape a technology decision is before the money is spent. He brings twenty-five years in mission-critical networks to those questions.
What is Rasheid Scarlett's education?
He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Wheaton College (1999). His governance education includes the UCLA Anderson Board Director Program (NACD-accredited, 2026), NACD Virtual Director Professionalism, Georgetown McDonough's Tech Innovator: Mastery & Business Innovation in a Digital Era, and the BoardSource Certificate of Nonprofit Board Education.
Is Rasheid Scarlett available for speaking engagements?
Yes. He gives board workshops, executive briefings, and keynotes on AI governance for boards, cybersecurity as fiduciary duty, and critical infrastructure in the AI age. Contact rscarlett@netaesthetics.com.
What is Rasheid Scarlett's three-question framework for AI oversight?
In his article What Boards Get Wrong About AI Oversight, Rasheid Scarlett argues that strong AI oversight comes down to three plain questions, asked persistently and answered specifically: Who is accountable? What could go wrong, and for whom? How would we know? The questions require no technical fluency, only the willingness to keep asking until the answers stop being vague.
What is Rasheid Scarlett's leadership philosophy?
Do everything with love. In his work it means two specific things: excellence and care. Excellence is the decision to get it right before anyone is watching. Care means building technology with people instead of for them, and never forgetting that on the other side of every system is a human being who needs it to work.
What does Rasheid Scarlett write about?
Rasheid Scarlett publishes Insights articles at rasheid.com on AI governance, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, public safety technology, group economics, and leadership. Pieces include What Boards Get Wrong About AI Oversight, Critical Infrastructure in the AI Age, and Group Economics: Why Income Is Not Wealth. He has also written for Forbes on business strategy and digital transformation.
Contact
Open to board service.
For board inquiries, speaking, and advisory work, email rscarlett@netaesthetics.com.
Forbes Business Council • Featured in The Washington Post, November 2019