Donovan Buck

AI Builder, Robot Tinkerer, Mountain Biker

As BrandExtract’s VP of Software Engineering, Donovan pushes the development team to stay ahead of a field that changes almost weekly. He believes you can’t build technology that removes roadblocks for users unless you keep stretching your own skills. These days that means putting AI to work: he builds agentic tools on large language models that handle real tasks for real users, and reusable AI workflows that take the busywork out of agency operations, from proposals to project tracking.

Donovan is also product manager for SAM, BrandExtract’s own site administration and maintenance platform. He treats it as a true SaaS product, balancing the roadmap, support, and the needs of the clients who rely on it every day. He leads the team building websites and digital tools for clients, and he keeps those builds grounded in the details that matter most now: platform-neutral CMS architecture, real WCAG accessibility in place of quick-fix overlays, and privacy-first consent practices that keep clients compliant and keep users’ trust.

In the mid-’90s, he and fellow partner Malcolm Wolter co-founded Bravo Zulu! Interactive, which merged with BrandExtract in 2006. Since then, Donovan has led custom application and large-scale corporate website projects for clients such as Marathon Oil, Apache, Murphy Oil and Ernst & Young.

This native Houstonian studied computer science at the University of Houston. He has contributed to Johnny-Five, the open-source JavaScript robotics framework; created the J5e embedded systems framework for robotics and IoT; and wrote a contribution for the first edition of JavaScript Robotics: Building NodeBots with Johnny-Five. He has spoken at programming conferences across the country, including JSConf, NodeConf and TXJS.

Away from work, you’ll find Donovan at the pump track on his dirt jump bike or tinkering with robotics and electronics. He’d tell you he’s always learning something new.