At SHARE Pittsburgh, members elected Keith Haynes, mainframe technology lead at Westfield Insurance, to the Board of Directors. SHARE HQ asked him a few questions about his career and his goals as a member of the board.

SHARE HQ: WHAT’S YOUR MAINFRAME STORY? HOW DID YOU COME TO THE PLATFORM?

Keith Haynes: I didn’t set out to work on the mainframe. As a junior in high school, I was focused on networking and completed the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) program. I went on to Youngstown State University to study networking and security. After graduation, the market was saturated with network engineers and I ended up starting on the help desk at Westfield Insurance. The turning point came when I moved into an identity and access management role where I was first exposed to the mainframe through ACF2 integrations.

I’ve always wanted to understand how things work, so whenever I had a mainframe-related request, I’d ask the systems programmers to explain what was behind it. Eventually, they invited me to join the team. Eighteen years later, I’m still working on the platform and continue to enjoy the challenge of learning and evolving with it.

SHARE HQ: WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT AT WORK, AND WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT OUTSIDE OF WORK?

Keith Haynes: At work, I’m passionate about solving problems and helping teams get more value from technology. I’ve been fortunate to work across many areas of IT throughout my career from security and infrastructure to operations, modernization, and AI. I enjoy looking at complex challenges and finding ways to make things simpler, more efficient, and easier for the next person. I also enjoy bridging the gap between traditional enterprise technologies and newer approaches like DevOps, automation, and AI.

Outside of work, my biggest passion is spending time with my family. I enjoy traveling, camping, and playing video games. I’m also jack-of-all-trades, master of none, both at work and at home. I enjoy tackling projects around the house and tinkering with technology in my spare time. I also have a strong sense of community and enjoy volunteering my time whenever I can.

SHARE HQ: HOW DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT SHARE?

Keith Haynes: I first learned about SHARE from my mentors early in my career. Looking back, I think they may have gotten tired of me asking so many questions and introduced me to SHARE.

SHARE HQ: WHY DID YOU BECOME A SHARE MEMBER?

Keith Haynes: I became a SHARE member because of the access to experts, the educational opportunities, and the relationships I was able to build. Early in my career, I was eager to learn, and SHARE gave me direct access to people who had decades of experience and were willing to share their knowledge.

Beyond the technical content, SHARE gave me a real sense of community and instilled in me my passion for the mainframe. It wasn’t just a conference or a collection of presentations. It was a group of people who genuinely cared about helping each other succeed.

SHARE HQ: AS A NEW BOARD MEMBER, WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS?

Keith Haynes: As a new board member, one of my biggest goals is to help strengthen and grow the mainframe community. The mainframe continues to be one of the most important enterprise computing platforms in the world, and I want to help ensure SHARE remains the premier organization for education, collaboration, and knowledge sharing around the platform.

I’d also like to help attract and engage the next generation of talent by showcasing the innovation happening across the ecosystem, from modernization and automation to cloud integration, DevOps, and AI.

Another priority is fostering the sense of community that makes SHARE special. Technical education is important, but the relationships and mentorship opportunities helped shape my career. They’re also a big part of what keeps people engaged in the organization.

SHARE HQ: WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY AND WHAT CHANGE DO YOU SEE GOING FORWARD?

Keith Haynes: What excites me most about enterprise technology right now is how quickly barriers are disappearing between traditional and modern platforms. We’re seeing enterprise systems integrate more seamlessly with cloud technologies, modern development practices, automation, and AI than ever before.

I’m particularly excited about the impact AI is going to have on our industry. For years, organizations have struggled with growing complexity and shrinking pools of specialized expertise. AI has the potential to help accelerate learning, improve productivity, preserve institutional knowledge, and make complex systems more accessible to a broader audience.

I think we’ll see continued convergence between enterprise platforms and modern tooling in the future. Technologies like AI, automation, DevOps, APIs, and platform engineering won’t be separate initiatives. They’ll simply become part of how we build and operate systems every day.

For the mainframe, that creates tremendous opportunities to combine the reliability and scalability of the platform with the capabilities of emerging technologies as organizations modernize their environments. That’s why I see the mainframe as well positioned for that future.

SHARE HQ: TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF THAT SHARE MEMBERS MAY NOT ALREADY KNOW.

Keith Haynes: When I was 11 years old, I was playing basketball outside when a woman named Mrs. Sanor pulled up in an old pickup truck looking for my older brother. He wasn’t home, so she asked if I’d like to help her collect maple buckets in the woods.

That day became my first real experience with hard work. Looking back, it was a different time: I’m still not sure why my parents let me leave with a stranger and disappear into the woods for the day.

Mrs. Sanor was impressed enough to ask me to start helping on her farm, and she became my first mentor. She taught me that hard work brings opportunities, challenged me with responsibilities well beyond what most people would expect from a young kid, and instilled the importance of helping your neighbors.

Many of the values I hold today, including my work ethic, curiosity, and willingness to help others, started on that little farm in Homeworth, Ohio. I continued working on farms until I left for college, and those experiences had a lasting impact on who I am both personally and professionally.

Keith Haynes is a mainframe technology lead at Westfield Insurance with 18 years of experience supporting IBM Z infrastructure, operations, security, storage, and modernization initiatives. His career began in networking and security before an opportunity in identity and access management introduced him to the mainframe platform. A passionate advocate for continuous learning, Haynes enjoys helping organizations bridge traditional enterprise technologies with modern practices such as automation, DevOps, and AI. An active SHARE member and newly elected board member, he is committed to fostering community, mentorship, and the growth of the next generation of mainframe professionals.