August 14, 2023 • 18 mins
Shyam Salona
As Chief Executive Officer of REI Systems, company cofounder Shyam Salona spends his days focused on building a culture of empowered teams and developing the agility of our company. Shyam believes the work environment that he fosters within REI Systems is the most crucial factor in REI Systems’ ability to build and deliver highly innovative solutions to our customers. Shyam looks at our company’s success from multiple directions and always looks for new ways that REI Systems can continue to grow. Shyam’s vision for the future of REI Systems is that REI’s customers, peers, employees, and the community in which we live and work will trust the company to do what is right, to keep its word, and leave our customers, employees, and our community better off than before.
Before co-founding REI Systems in 1989, Shyam spent several years developing information systems and technology products. In the decades since, he has led REI Systems to design and implement innovative web-based solutions for complex business processes. Shyam has delivered multiple mission-critical solutions to public sector customers. He is happiest when he sees these solutions help achieve those agencies’ missions and improve millions of lives.
Shyam received an M.S. in operations research at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, India, in 1977. He then earned a diploma for his graduate research in computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology, also in Delhi, in 1978. In 1980, Shyam moved to the U.S. to earn his M.S. in computer science from the Center for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (Lafayette) in 1982. After completing his education, he worked as a consultant, manager, and engineer at several corporations. After his job as a principal engineer at Digital Equipment Corp in Nashua, NH, Shyam partnered with Veer Bhartiya to start REI Systems.
Outside the office, Shyam enjoys listening to music, hiking, reading, mentoring entrepreneurs, and spending time with his wife, Poonam, and their two grown daughters.
As Chief Executive Officer of REI Systems, company cofounder Shyam Salona spends his days focused on building a culture of empowered teams and developing the agility of our company. Shyam believes the work environment that he fosters within REI Systems is the most crucial factor in REI Systems’ ability to build and deliver highly innovative solutions to our customers. Shyam looks at our company’s success from multiple directions and always looks for new ways that REI Systems can continue to grow. Shyam’s vision for the future of REI Systems is that REI’s customers, peers, employees, and the community in which we live and work will trust the company to do what is right, to keep its word, and leave our customers, employees, and our community better off than before.
Before co-founding REI Systems in 1989, Shyam spent several years developing information systems and technology products. In the decades since, he has led REI Systems to design and implement innovative web-based solutions for complex business processes. Shyam has delivered multiple mission-critical solutions to public sector customers. He is happiest when he sees these solutions help achieve those agencies’ missions and improve millions of lives.
Shyam received an M.S. in operations research at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, India, in 1977. He then earned a diploma for his graduate research in computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology, also in Delhi, in 1978. In 1980, Shyam moved to the U.S. to earn his M.S. in computer science from the Center for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (Lafayette) in 1982. After completing his education, he worked as a consultant, manager, and engineer at several corporations. After his job as a principal engineer at Digital Equipment Corp in Nashua, NH, Shyam partnered with Veer Bhartiya to start REI Systems.
Outside the office, Shyam enjoys listening to music, hiking, reading, mentoring entrepreneurs, and spending time with his wife, Poonam, and their two grown daughters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by iHeart Asia. Let's
meet Schamcelona. He is the cofounder and CEO for our EI Systems,
a technology company providing application modernization,grants, management systems and products, government
data analytics and advisory services and helpgovernment meet the demands of the twenty first
(00:22):
century. Before we talk more aboutSchamp's company, I first asked him to
talk a little bit about himself,where he's from and his origin story.
I migrated to this country when Iwas twenty three years old. I grew
up in India and when I cameto this country the fusting In fact,
after four weeks, I joined graduateschool, a small school in Cajun Country,
(00:45):
Louisiana. That's where my journey inUS stops. Well, I want
to talk all about RII Systems withyou. It's going on over thirty three
years of the company that you cofounded, and I know you've been CEO
since nineteen and I want to talkabout that transition from CTO to CEO because
we have a lot of future leadersthat listen to this program, and when
(01:07):
you move up to a different role, there's a lot of different things that
can happen in your life, andwe will get to that. But first
of all, I, you know, speaking of origin stories, I always
like to talk about the idea aboutcoming up with a company. And when
I talked to brilliant people like youthat see that, you know there's a
hole in the industry here, Ithink I have a good idea. I
think I'm going to implement it.It's a big leap of faith. There's
(01:30):
a lot of risk taking when youdo that. But what was the idea
behind starting RII Systems? What wasthat epiphany? So I'll take you back
to you know, mid nineteen eighties. I was working for a large computer
company and developing one of their products. And our team was say large under
(01:55):
people team and split across New Hampshireand Colorado. And as a principal engineer,
what I realized is that even thoughI was surrounded by brilliant technical people,
that what this large team got done. You know, I always thought
(02:15):
smaller teams, you know, wherepeople are having on enjoying what they're doing,
could do much more than this largeteam with multiple layers. So that
is what triggered the idea that,hey, is it possible to create an
environment where small teams are empowered topursue meaningful work, enjoy what they are
(02:36):
doing, learned from each other.And the other key thing which I didn't
care for in a large company wasthe positioning the politics. Can we create
an environment where that is not presentand solved that work. So those are
the ideas that triggered, hey,can we create such an environment? Well,
thanks for sharing and that makes alot of sense. That's a common
(02:57):
theme with a lot of our leadersout there when they do start the company.
All right, So before we getinto everything that you do, capabilities
programs and really into the weeds witha company, what's the mission statement of
ARII Systems. So our mission statement, Dennis, is essentially leverage technology to
help achieve public sector missions that improvemillions of lives. So all the work
(03:22):
that we do is focused on publicsector and we use technology to help address
some of the complex challenges those missionsspace. All right, we're also introducing
your company to thousands, thousands andthousand people that maybe not have heard of
ARII before, And how dare youeverybody, but for the people that have
not heard of your company, ifyou were to explain for the first time
(03:45):
what you do with your clients.What is that? So I would say
that what AREI does is given anychallenge that an organization, and for us
it's the public sector organizations that theysee in achieving their missions, we come
and work with them, understand whatthe challenge is, and then use technology
(04:09):
to help address and support that challenge. That's what we do as a company,
and that translates into many different reforms. But in essence, you know
innovative technology solutions that help public sectormissions. Okay, let's do this.
You've got three categories and I'm goingto let you talk about whatever you would
(04:30):
like to share when it comes toservices, technologies, and delivery approach,
from your capabilities, what are themost important ones to you and also your
clients. So I think the threeI would cite is by giving an example
to you. One example was Ithink it was there was a new legislation
passed in Congress about providing body armorto law enforcement officers throughout our country.
(04:57):
That legislation passed in November, andin four months we had a solution that
allows more than sixteen thousand law enforcementagencies throughout the country to submit their application
for this program get the necessary fundsto equip their officers with body armor.
So that's an example of leveraging technologyto help address emission to reach out to
(05:24):
a large set of jurisdictions in thecountry and be able to support them.
Another example is a more recently FDAFood and Drug Investation, the office that
is responsible for making sure that thefood and drugs that come into the country
(05:46):
are safe for our citizens. Theyhave more than thirty applications technology applications that
help them do that work, andour role in that is to modernize those
set of applications to use the currenttechnology. So that gives you a flavor
of the type of work we do. And essentially, if you were to
say what are the core capabilities,it's around application modernization is one, grant
(06:13):
system is another, and advising ourclients to how best to go about addressing
the challenges. We call it advisoryselves. It's outstanding. Well, thank
you for sharing all that. Idid. Want to ask you about competition.
I don't want to assume that there'sanybody exactly what you do, but
if there is some similar companies outthere that are vying for the same business,
how do you differentiate yourself from thatcompetition? So there are lots of
(06:38):
companies in the marketplace that do similarwork, and we are a mid size
company, so most of the timethe competition that we have is all the
bigger companies like Booz, Allen,Lidos, those companies who are much larger
than us. So our key differentiatorsare more in terms of agility and how
(07:00):
quickly we can respond the pere andpersonal attention that we give to our customers,
and ultimately focused on making an impactand not just revenue or dollars.
So that's what makes us specimen it. I'm also going to make an assumption
and you can correct me if I'mwrong, but you know, you've been
doing this now for thirty three years, and I imagine that there are a
(07:23):
lot of newcomers to the table.They might we have this great idea,
they've got this many people, ButI imagine since you've been in the game
for so long and the relationships thatyou have built up over the last three
decades, that's an advantage to you. Would I be correct in saying that,
yes, impact One of the thingsthat I take pride and very first
(07:44):
customer we had thirty three years ago, NASA, is how we got styled
as part of a competition for smallbusinesses. We are still serving that customer,
the second, the third, allthose customers we have still engaged with
them and supporting those customers and helpaddress their challenges outstanding. That's fantastic.
(08:05):
I'm glad that you share that withme because I'm a big NASA fan,
so anytime I get to hear thatpeople are partnering with them, I think
it's really cool too, because they'vehad their challenges over the last couple of
decades too. We're just funding ingeneral like every other government agency out there,
so thanks for sharing them as well. I did want to talk to
you about maybe a success story thatyou might have, and I want to
put a pin in that just fora second and talk about some challenges when
(08:26):
it comes to the industry in general. What are you facing that is a
real challenge or challenges in the industrythat you have with your clients or the
industry in general. I think interms of challenges, the biggest challenge basis
finding talented people. Given the natureof our business where we are oriented towards
(08:46):
public sector missions, that is theone area that is really difficult and we
struggled with constantly. Although we havebeen successful over the year, but last
one or two years it was extremelydifficult with this great resignation challenge going on
(09:07):
for many of our companies in ourspace, in fact all over the place.
That's the challenge I would say comestop of mind for me. And
this is even after you know,most recently in June, our company was
recognized as a one of the topworkplaces in the Washington region and that was
(09:28):
the seventh time that our company receivedthat award. So even the special culture
we have, the environment we have, even then, it is difficult to
find good Well. I'd like toexpand on this a little bit from a
leadership standpoint because for the people don'tknow, you've got over eight hundred and
forty employees and that is a handful. And I know that you're industry lease
(09:50):
to people being either hybrid unless they'resuper secret stuff that they have to be
on location with, but mostly peopleare working from home. You have to
have competitive salaries. Everybody has.Do you have a good work life balance?
There are other companies out there thatare competitive with you, So how
do you balance all of this withover eight hundred employees making sure that not
only they do what you would likethem to do, but also make sure
(10:11):
that they are happy employees and wantto stay with a company long term.
It's got to be a great jugglingact. I would say there are three
things that makes us a place thatpeople like, and in fact, you'll
be amazed if you look at someof the statistics on how long people once
they join us, how long theystay with us. And those three things
(10:31):
are the work that we do ismeaningful, is fulfilling. When you receive
a call from a law enforcement officerin Kentucky saying, hey, you helped
save my life, it just makesyou even though we did this small technology
component of it, but who youare helping, the difference you're making is
(10:54):
the amazing fulfilling part. So that'sone reason. The second reason is that
our company is very compassionate and caringabout its people, and that shows in
our culture, that shows in thedecisions the choices we make. So that
is the second reason that our environmentis special. The third one is the
(11:18):
emphasis we place on employee development.In fact, you know many companies when
they talk about how can they impactand provide benefits to the community. I'm
a strong believer that the best wayto make that impact for the community is
to focus on employee growth and developmentbecause that's how the places where they live
(11:43):
and you know their activity is goingto make a difference with the community.
So those are the three I wouldsay, very good. All right,
let's talk about that success story.I imagine that you have bushels fall and
lots of different great stories and youdon't have to necessarily mention a client if
you don't want to. But isthere something that sticks out? Maybe over
the last couple of two, threefive years he said, you know what,
today we knocked that one out ofthe park for the client. So
(12:05):
I would cite this, you know, as the COVID pandemic hit. And
we work with an agency that's inthe health domain. So part of the
mission of that agency was to makesure that funds for supporting health centers throughout
the country and are sent to thesephysicians and health centers in a timely manner.
(12:33):
And our team got the privilege toput together a system that can allow
the agency to distribute these funds sothat these vaccines and these activities could be
done in a timely manner. Andwe set a record I think twelve days
we get the COVID funding out twoplaces where the need was. So that's
(12:54):
a more recent story that I wouldshare. Well, that's a great story,
and I'm glad you did share it, because when I talk to companies
like yourself and leaders and CEOs,there's so many things that your companies do
behind the scenes that we don't knowabout that take good care of Americans out
there, and you have to bevery appreciative once you do hear the story
(13:16):
a little bit behind the curtain aboutall the amazing things that you and your
team does. It's pretty incredible stuffand I'm sure you feel that way every
day as well. Yeah, that'swhat makes it all But why you come
in every day? And that's reallycool? All right. I didn't want
to talk to you about philanthropic andcharity work, so we'll take a little
step away from the business, eventhough you might do some charity work with
(13:37):
the business. When it comes toany kind of charity work that you like
to do with a company, whatare you a part of right now?
I would say that part of itreflects on my own upbringing. There are
two areas that I'm passionate about,education and poverty, So on the education
front, we do a couple ofimportant things. Every year. We support
(14:01):
the Loudon County Youth Leadership Development Programand so we have been partnered with them
for the last three four years.We have an organization within ARII are called
RII Cares where even employees can decidehere these are the charities that they are
interested in supporting, and then thecompany uses its funds to support those charities.
(14:28):
We recently, you know, providedthey you know, there's a program
I forget the name of the program, books for children who have limited resources.
So it's many of the charities arefocused on the education front and personally,
I also, you know, supportthe capital of food bank in the
(14:52):
region. Understanding, thank you forsharing all that. As we wrap up
our conversation and once again there's alot of people they're going to be introduce
your company for the first time inRII systems, What one takeaway would you
like to have them go with aswe talk and kind of finalize thoughts about
the company, what's our last takeawayyou want to give everybody? I would
say two things. One is,you know often we talk about the leadership
(15:18):
and you know what it is andhow to become a leader. My suggestion
would be that each human being hasgifts. The importance is to realize what
your gifts are and then focus onleveraging those gifts to make a difference in
the world, and you will beamazed at the kind of success you realize
(15:43):
and achieve. The second thing Iwould mention is that if you're a person
who is you know, passionate aboutpublic sector missions and joys learning and about
technology, we are always looking forgood people. So please look us up
and end up by and with awebsite, And it's a gorgeous website.
(16:06):
You've ever done it. It's beautiful, it's easy to navigate, it's easy
to read. There's lots of knapbuttons on their including a careers button,
so go ahead and tap it on. There are job openings open right now,
and I imagine you're looking for thebest of the best always, But
there are several jobs that are availablewith the company. Correct. Yes,
there are more than thirty job openingsthat are currently there. Very good.
(16:27):
Let's give that website to everybody.So our website is www dot EI Systems
Systems dot com. All right,one thing before I want to talk to
you, before I let go,and I promised our listeners I would do
it as a transition. And youtalked to a little bit earlier and I
(16:47):
mentioned it that you were co founderthirty three years ago, and you were
CTO for many years, but youcame CEO in twenty nineteen right before COVID.
Lucky you, so you have tojuggle with all that. Can you
talk from a leader standpoint about whatthat transition was like on your life and
how it changed the dynamics of youand the company before we let you go.
So I would say personally, forme, it changed my life because
(17:12):
I had to certainly get involved inaspects of the business that I was not
as involved in earlier. I wasfocused on the technology, the solutions part,
but with this transition I had tolook at the contracts, financial and
some of those staffs. So itwas a learning process for me. The
(17:33):
second thing I would say is thatour company was fortunate that we had good
supporting talent in the organization that madethis journey smooth for me and the company
outstanding. Thanks again for sharing allof that. I can't tell you how
much I appreciate your time and Sham, It's been a lot of fun to
get to know you and the companythirty three years is an extraordinary thing.
(17:56):
I mean, they have a companyfor three decades, are still going strong,
and you're growing and you're sustainable,and it's just a great story.
So please give my best to allyour staff and I can't tell you how
much we appreciate your time and thankyou for joining us on CEOs you should
know. Thank you, it's aprivilege. Our community partner, M ANDT
Bank supports CEOs you should know aspart of their ongoing commitment to building strong
(18:18):
communities, and that starts by backingthe businesses within them. As a Bank
for communities, M and T believesin dedicating time, talent, and resources
to help local businesses thrive, becausewhen businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by iHeart Asia. Let's
meet Schamcelona. He is the cofounder and CEO for our EI Systems,
a technology company providing application modernization,grants, management systems and products, government
data analytics and advisory services and helpgovernment meet the demands of the twenty first
(00:22):
century. Before we talk more aboutSchamp's company, I first asked him to
talk a little bit about himself,where he's from and his origin story.
I migrated to this country when Iwas twenty three years old. I grew
up in India and when I cameto this country the fusting In fact,
after four weeks, I joined graduateschool, a small school in Cajun Country,
(00:45):
Louisiana. That's where my journey inUS stops. Well, I want
to talk all about RII Systems withyou. It's going on over thirty three
years of the company that you cofounded, and I know you've been CEO
since nineteen and I want to talkabout that transition from CTO to CEO because
we have a lot of future leadersthat listen to this program, and when
(01:07):
you move up to a different role, there's a lot of different things that
can happen in your life, andwe will get to that. But first
of all, I, you know, speaking of origin stories, I always
like to talk about the idea aboutcoming up with a company. And when
I talked to brilliant people like youthat see that, you know there's a
hole in the industry here, Ithink I have a good idea. I
think I'm going to implement it.It's a big leap of faith. There's
(01:30):
a lot of risk taking when youdo that. But what was the idea
behind starting RII Systems? What wasthat epiphany? So I'll take you back
to you know, mid nineteen eighties. I was working for a large computer
company and developing one of their products. And our team was say large under
(01:55):
people team and split across New Hampshireand Colorado. And as a principal engineer,
what I realized is that even thoughI was surrounded by brilliant technical people,
that what this large team got done. You know, I always thought
(02:15):
smaller teams, you know, wherepeople are having on enjoying what they're doing,
could do much more than this largeteam with multiple layers. So that
is what triggered the idea that,hey, is it possible to create an
environment where small teams are empowered topursue meaningful work, enjoy what they are
(02:36):
doing, learned from each other.And the other key thing which I didn't
care for in a large company wasthe positioning the politics. Can we create
an environment where that is not presentand solved that work. So those are
the ideas that triggered, hey,can we create such an environment? Well,
thanks for sharing and that makes alot of sense. That's a common
(02:57):
theme with a lot of our leadersout there when they do start the company.
All right, So before we getinto everything that you do, capabilities
programs and really into the weeds witha company, what's the mission statement of
ARII Systems. So our mission statement, Dennis, is essentially leverage technology to
help achieve public sector missions that improvemillions of lives. So all the work
(03:22):
that we do is focused on publicsector and we use technology to help address
some of the complex challenges those missionsspace. All right, we're also introducing
your company to thousands, thousands andthousand people that maybe not have heard of
ARII before, And how dare youeverybody, but for the people that have
not heard of your company, ifyou were to explain for the first time
(03:45):
what you do with your clients.What is that? So I would say
that what AREI does is given anychallenge that an organization, and for us
it's the public sector organizations that theysee in achieving their missions, we come
and work with them, understand whatthe challenge is, and then use technology
(04:09):
to help address and support that challenge. That's what we do as a company,
and that translates into many different reforms. But in essence, you know
innovative technology solutions that help public sectormissions. Okay, let's do this.
You've got three categories and I'm goingto let you talk about whatever you would
(04:30):
like to share when it comes toservices, technologies, and delivery approach,
from your capabilities, what are themost important ones to you and also your
clients. So I think the threeI would cite is by giving an example
to you. One example was Ithink it was there was a new legislation
passed in Congress about providing body armorto law enforcement officers throughout our country.
(04:57):
That legislation passed in November, andin four months we had a solution that
allows more than sixteen thousand law enforcementagencies throughout the country to submit their application
for this program get the necessary fundsto equip their officers with body armor.
So that's an example of leveraging technologyto help address emission to reach out to
(05:24):
a large set of jurisdictions in thecountry and be able to support them.
Another example is a more recently FDAFood and Drug Investation, the office that
is responsible for making sure that thefood and drugs that come into the country
(05:46):
are safe for our citizens. Theyhave more than thirty applications technology applications that
help them do that work, andour role in that is to modernize those
set of applications to use the currenttechnology. So that gives you a flavor
of the type of work we do. And essentially, if you were to
say what are the core capabilities,it's around application modernization is one, grant
(06:13):
system is another, and advising ourclients to how best to go about addressing
the challenges. We call it advisoryselves. It's outstanding. Well, thank
you for sharing all that. Idid. Want to ask you about competition.
I don't want to assume that there'sanybody exactly what you do, but
if there is some similar companies outthere that are vying for the same business,
how do you differentiate yourself from thatcompetition? So there are lots of
(06:38):
companies in the marketplace that do similarwork, and we are a mid size
company, so most of the timethe competition that we have is all the
bigger companies like Booz, Allen,Lidos, those companies who are much larger
than us. So our key differentiatorsare more in terms of agility and how
(07:00):
quickly we can respond the pere andpersonal attention that we give to our customers,
and ultimately focused on making an impactand not just revenue or dollars.
So that's what makes us specimen it. I'm also going to make an assumption
and you can correct me if I'mwrong, but you know, you've been
doing this now for thirty three years, and I imagine that there are a
(07:23):
lot of newcomers to the table.They might we have this great idea,
they've got this many people, ButI imagine since you've been in the game
for so long and the relationships thatyou have built up over the last three
decades, that's an advantage to you. Would I be correct in saying that,
yes, impact One of the thingsthat I take pride and very first
(07:44):
customer we had thirty three years ago, NASA, is how we got styled
as part of a competition for smallbusinesses. We are still serving that customer,
the second, the third, allthose customers we have still engaged with
them and supporting those customers and helpaddress their challenges outstanding. That's fantastic.
(08:05):
I'm glad that you share that withme because I'm a big NASA fan,
so anytime I get to hear thatpeople are partnering with them, I think
it's really cool too, because they'vehad their challenges over the last couple of
decades too. We're just funding ingeneral like every other government agency out there,
so thanks for sharing them as well. I did want to talk to
you about maybe a success story thatyou might have, and I want to
put a pin in that just fora second and talk about some challenges when
(08:26):
it comes to the industry in general. What are you facing that is a
real challenge or challenges in the industrythat you have with your clients or the
industry in general. I think interms of challenges, the biggest challenge basis
finding talented people. Given the natureof our business where we are oriented towards
(08:46):
public sector missions, that is theone area that is really difficult and we
struggled with constantly. Although we havebeen successful over the year, but last
one or two years it was extremelydifficult with this great resignation challenge going on
(09:07):
for many of our companies in ourspace, in fact all over the place.
That's the challenge I would say comestop of mind for me. And
this is even after you know,most recently in June, our company was
recognized as a one of the topworkplaces in the Washington region and that was
(09:28):
the seventh time that our company receivedthat award. So even the special culture
we have, the environment we have, even then, it is difficult to
find good Well. I'd like toexpand on this a little bit from a
leadership standpoint because for the people don'tknow, you've got over eight hundred and
forty employees and that is a handful. And I know that you're industry lease
(09:50):
to people being either hybrid unless they'resuper secret stuff that they have to be
on location with, but mostly peopleare working from home. You have to
have competitive salaries. Everybody has.Do you have a good work life balance?
There are other companies out there thatare competitive with you, So how
do you balance all of this withover eight hundred employees making sure that not
only they do what you would likethem to do, but also make sure
(10:11):
that they are happy employees and wantto stay with a company long term.
It's got to be a great jugglingact. I would say there are three
things that makes us a place thatpeople like, and in fact, you'll
be amazed if you look at someof the statistics on how long people once
they join us, how long theystay with us. And those three things
(10:31):
are the work that we do ismeaningful, is fulfilling. When you receive
a call from a law enforcement officerin Kentucky saying, hey, you helped
save my life, it just makesyou even though we did this small technology
component of it, but who youare helping, the difference you're making is
(10:54):
the amazing fulfilling part. So that'sone reason. The second reason is that
our company is very compassionate and caringabout its people, and that shows in
our culture, that shows in thedecisions the choices we make. So that
is the second reason that our environmentis special. The third one is the
(11:18):
emphasis we place on employee development.In fact, you know many companies when
they talk about how can they impactand provide benefits to the community. I'm
a strong believer that the best wayto make that impact for the community is
to focus on employee growth and developmentbecause that's how the places where they live
(11:43):
and you know their activity is goingto make a difference with the community.
So those are the three I wouldsay, very good. All right,
let's talk about that success story.I imagine that you have bushels fall and
lots of different great stories and youdon't have to necessarily mention a client if
you don't want to. But isthere something that sticks out? Maybe over
the last couple of two, threefive years he said, you know what,
today we knocked that one out ofthe park for the client. So
(12:05):
I would cite this, you know, as the COVID pandemic hit. And
we work with an agency that's inthe health domain. So part of the
mission of that agency was to makesure that funds for supporting health centers throughout
the country and are sent to thesephysicians and health centers in a timely manner.
(12:33):
And our team got the privilege toput together a system that can allow
the agency to distribute these funds sothat these vaccines and these activities could be
done in a timely manner. Andwe set a record I think twelve days
we get the COVID funding out twoplaces where the need was. So that's
(12:54):
a more recent story that I wouldshare. Well, that's a great story,
and I'm glad you did share it, because when I talk to companies
like yourself and leaders and CEOs,there's so many things that your companies do
behind the scenes that we don't knowabout that take good care of Americans out
there, and you have to bevery appreciative once you do hear the story
(13:16):
a little bit behind the curtain aboutall the amazing things that you and your
team does. It's pretty incredible stuffand I'm sure you feel that way every
day as well. Yeah, that'swhat makes it all But why you come
in every day? And that's reallycool? All right. I didn't want
to talk to you about philanthropic andcharity work, so we'll take a little
step away from the business, eventhough you might do some charity work with
(13:37):
the business. When it comes toany kind of charity work that you like
to do with a company, whatare you a part of right now?
I would say that part of itreflects on my own upbringing. There are
two areas that I'm passionate about,education and poverty, So on the education
front, we do a couple ofimportant things. Every year. We support
(14:01):
the Loudon County Youth Leadership Development Programand so we have been partnered with them
for the last three four years.We have an organization within ARII are called
RII Cares where even employees can decidehere these are the charities that they are
interested in supporting, and then thecompany uses its funds to support those charities.
(14:28):
We recently, you know, providedthey you know, there's a program
I forget the name of the program, books for children who have limited resources.
So it's many of the charities arefocused on the education front and personally,
I also, you know, supportthe capital of food bank in the
(14:52):
region. Understanding, thank you forsharing all that. As we wrap up
our conversation and once again there's alot of people they're going to be introduce
your company for the first time inRII systems, What one takeaway would you
like to have them go with aswe talk and kind of finalize thoughts about
the company, what's our last takeawayyou want to give everybody? I would
say two things. One is,you know often we talk about the leadership
(15:18):
and you know what it is andhow to become a leader. My suggestion
would be that each human being hasgifts. The importance is to realize what
your gifts are and then focus onleveraging those gifts to make a difference in
the world, and you will beamazed at the kind of success you realize
(15:43):
and achieve. The second thing Iwould mention is that if you're a person
who is you know, passionate aboutpublic sector missions and joys learning and about
technology, we are always looking forgood people. So please look us up
and end up by and with awebsite, And it's a gorgeous website.
(16:06):
You've ever done it. It's beautiful, it's easy to navigate, it's easy
to read. There's lots of knapbuttons on their including a careers button,
so go ahead and tap it on. There are job openings open right now,
and I imagine you're looking for thebest of the best always, But
there are several jobs that are availablewith the company. Correct. Yes,
there are more than thirty job openingsthat are currently there. Very good.
(16:27):
Let's give that website to everybody.So our website is www dot EI Systems
Systems dot com. All right,one thing before I want to talk to
you, before I let go,and I promised our listeners I would do
it as a transition. And youtalked to a little bit earlier and I
(16:47):
mentioned it that you were co founderthirty three years ago, and you were
CTO for many years, but youcame CEO in twenty nineteen right before COVID.
Lucky you, so you have tojuggle with all that. Can you
talk from a leader standpoint about whatthat transition was like on your life and
how it changed the dynamics of youand the company before we let you go.
So I would say personally, forme, it changed my life because
(17:12):
I had to certainly get involved inaspects of the business that I was not
as involved in earlier. I wasfocused on the technology, the solutions part,
but with this transition I had tolook at the contracts, financial and
some of those staffs. So itwas a learning process for me. The
(17:33):
second thing I would say is thatour company was fortunate that we had good
supporting talent in the organization that madethis journey smooth for me and the company
outstanding. Thanks again for sharing allof that. I can't tell you how
much I appreciate your time and Sham, It's been a lot of fun to
get to know you and the companythirty three years is an extraordinary thing.
(17:56):
I mean, they have a companyfor three decades, are still going strong,
and you're growing and you're sustainable,and it's just a great story.
So please give my best to allyour staff and I can't tell you how
much we appreciate your time and thankyou for joining us on CEOs you should
know. Thank you, it's aprivilege. Our community partner, M ANDT
Bank supports CEOs you should know aspart of their ongoing commitment to building strong
(18:18):
communities, and that starts by backingthe businesses within them. As a Bank
for communities, M and T believesin dedicating time, talent, and resources
to help local businesses thrive, becausewhen businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
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