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I focus primarily on helping entrepreneurs and their organizations forge the strategic direction of technology to implement the tools that will help them achieve their goals. I believe that entrepreneurs and their organizations are what are driving today’s economy; they are the ones who are setting the tone for the appropriate use of today’s technologies. These organizations are conscious that the adoption of today’s technologies is absolutely critical for their success; and that receiving competent guidance and advice as early as possible will determine the future of their companies. Computers and music have always been my passion. My father was a computer professional, so I had a lot of exposure to computers back in the 1970s when most kids my age hadn’t even seen a picture of a computer. It was an interesting diversion, but music was really my passion. I played saxophone and piano. When I went off to college I started a minor in music, but I soon found out that I wasn’t cut out to explore music as an academic subject, much less as a profession. I needed to change to something that was easy and fun for me. I chose Computer Science. I found that I enjoyed helping people solve their technology issues. After I left the military, I put that college degree in computer science to work for me as a customer service rep for a retail computer store. However, this opportunity also gave me my first taste of the corporate mindset, so when an opportunity came along to do some work as an independent consultant, I readily went exploring. I learned to listen and understand customers about what they wanted to do, how to bring about what they weren’t able to accomplish, and the technical concerns people had with computers in general. I spent the next couple of years working independently in my own business. Along the way I was offered a full-time technology position with a local governmental agency that was in desperate need of technology advancements. I designed and implemented an entire computer technology infrastructure for two-hundred employees, and then oversaw the expansion of that infrastructure as the agency grew to five-hundred employees over the next three years. It was then that I was reminded of the challenges with working in large organizations. The organizational politics started driving my work environment, while I was more interested in solving problems with technology so that people could be productive in their work efforts. I grew to realize that the best solution for me was to part ways. I shifted my focus into the small company environment, and began to find my niche. I worked on various projects involving infrastructure and applications for organizations with less than two-hundred employees, and usually less than twenty-five in the corporate office. This was the environment that I had been missing in the large company and government sectors. The ability to work one-on-one on a daily basis with the company’s leaders, yet still work with the individual user helping them to improve their use of the basic tools, which was much more enjoyable. Still, I felt my impact was limited by focusing on one organization at a time. I needed some way to express my personal diversity and share my intensity among several organizations. I realized that to achieve nirvana, I needed to broaden my scope of work and move into an environment where I could work with several small companies at the same time. This would allow me to work with companies earlier in their growth cycle when the adoption of technologies is much easier and would have a greater impact on the development of those companies. I left the corporate environment once again to pursue my own business specializing in providing technology services and consulting to small organizations and independent professionals. Most recently I've narrowed my focus to database environments, focusing on all aspects of databases: database architecture, database servers, database maintenance and optimization, and database applications. I have a M.S. in Operations Management, a B.S. in Computer Science, and several additional hours of study in various undergraduate and graduate programs. About thirty hours of my week is spent working directly with business leaders and their employees developing and implementing technologies. Another twenty to thirty hours is spent in personal development and growth focusing on technology skills and business management skills. I teach Sunday school at my church every other week, and the rest of my time is spent with my family, including my precious daughter who was born in March, 2003 |
