Meet Kai: the Overseer of Operations

This post is part of a weekly series in which we get to know Sifties.

Kai Morrison, our Operations Manager, has been with Sift Science for almost three years. When he isn’t busy keeping our San Francisco headquarters going, you can find him either watching Star Trek: The Next Generation or playing games like Tales of the Arabian Nights.

What three traits define you?

Compassionate, weird, and nerdy.

What superpower would you want to have and why?

Invincibility, because there would be such cool science research that could be done with an individual who is invincible. We would be able to see what the inside of the sun looks like because we could send someone in there who wouldn’t be affected by the elements like a normal person would.

Where were you born?

Juneau, Alaska. It was gorgeous, cold, wet, and dark. I had no idea that any of those things were true until I moved away. Any day of the year it could be 50 degrees and raining.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?

I have a degree in acting. I had planned to pursue a legitimate career as a movie star, but after visiting Los Angeles and New York, I knew I wouldn’t want to live in either of them.

The lessons I got from acting have served me well in operations and my job here at Sift Science. You have to be aware of your environment and the people around you – what makes them tick, what they need. You have to be perceptive of other people’s states of mind and beings, and that’s directly applicable to operations roles.

You’re really into games. When did that passion start?

There was a particular game that I didn’t play until I was in college named Talisman. Before that, I had only ever played Monopoly. When I played Talisman, I learned how amazing it can be and I was hooked. I currently have 80-some board games at home.

I play in game groups, but it’s surprisingly hard to find reliable gaming groups. It’s also because it’s entirely dependent on my ability to participate. For a lot of the games that I like to play, I have to wait to find a group that’s ready to play and organize a game night.

I am also currently designing my own adventure board game! It is a game in which all of the playable characters are female. I wanted to create a game for a while that put women at the forefront of the interaction, because it’s often the opposite — just with a token female character. It’s an interesting perspective that others haven’t experienced. I am still iterating on it and can’t wait to release it!