my career

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CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Executive and Board Positions

President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Omni-Vista, Inc.
Acting Vice President, Marketing, Omni-Vista, Inc.
Founding Director, Requisite, Inc.
Founding Member, Board of Advisors, Catalyst InfoTech Development Fund, L.P.
Vice President, BTG, Inc.
President, The Davis Company (1991-1998; 2002-present)

Middle Management Positions

Director, Common Systems Development, GTE Communications Systems 
Director, Software Technology Center, GTE Laboratories

Academic Experience

Professor of Business, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Visiting Professor of Business and Economics, Atma Jaya University, Yogyakarta, Java,  
        Indonesia (Fall 2007)
Visiting Professor of Software Engineering, Universidad Politéchnica de Madrid (Technical
       University of Madrid), Madrid, Spain (Summer 2006)
Visiting Professor of Information and Computer Technology, University of Jos, Nigeria (Summer
       2005)
Visiting Scholar of Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2004- 
       2008 (Summers 2004 and 2005)
Visiting Professor of Information Systems, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (Fall
      2003)
El Pomar Endowed Chair in Software Engineering, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Professor of Computer Science, George Mason University
Professor of Information & Software Systems Engineering, George Mason University
Acting Chair of Computer Science, George Mason University
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee (1975-1977)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois (1975)

Public Speaking

Delivered lectures 500+ times in 27 states of the USA and 25 countries (See details here and here).

Writing

Author of five books.

Author of 60+ journal and conference publications, and 50+ published essays and editorials.

Other

Recipient of 25+ awards.

Over 1,000 citations in professional literature.

CAREER TIMELINE

   
DETAILED EXPERIENCE

1991-present: University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Professor of Business (2000-present) and Computer Science (1991-2000)
El Pomar Endowed Chair in Software Engineering (1991-2000)
Director, Center for Software Systems Engineering (1991-1998)

As a faculty member, Dr. Davis teaches courses, performs research, publishes, and acquires and executes research grants and contracts in software engineering, information systems, business strategy, and entrepreneurship.  In addition, he spent 25% of his time with the Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer & Implementation (CITTI) to promote economic development in Colorado by assisting entrepreneurs in creating new companies. He chaired the committee to establish a new master’s degree in software systems engineering, and established the Colorado Springs Software Distinguished Speaker Series and a Certificate Program in Software Engineering for local employees. He has thus far acquired over $1.6M worth of grants.

1998-2002: Omni-Vista, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado
Chairman and CEO (1998-2002)
President (1998-2001)
Acting Vice President, Marketing (1999-2000)

Omni-Vista was dedicated to helping companies prevent software management disasters through innovative products and services centered around product planning and requirements management. The tools assisted companies in balancing their desired product features with a target market window and available R&D dollars. Such complex, multi-dimensional problems were previously solved only by “gut” or “instinct” of decision-makers. Omni-Vista raised $2.5M in five rounds of private placements, released three products (called Omni-Vista SP, OnYourMark and OnYourMark Pro). At its peak, the company had 150+ customers and 14 employees. 

The assets of Omni-Vista were sold in mid-2002.

1995-2000: Catalyst InfoTech Development Fund, L.P, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Non-Managing General Partner  (1995-2002)
Member, Investment Advisory Board  (1995-2002)

In addition to being a general partner, I served on the board that assessed candidate portfolio companies, and made investment recommendations to the managing general partners.

The assets of this venture capital fund were distributed to the general and limited partners in 2002.

1995-1997: Requisite, Inc., Boulder, Colorado
Founding Director

I was a member of the Board of Directors throughout the life of Requisite, Inc., a start-up focused on providing innovative software tools to support requirements management. 

Requisite was acquired by Rational Software Corp. in 1997 and IBM in 2003

1989-1991: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
Professor of Information and Software Systems Engineering (1989-1991)
Professor of Computer Science (1990-1991)
Acting Chair, Department of Computer Science (1990-1991)

As a faculty member in two departments, Dr. Davis taught graduate level courses, performed research, and worked on research grants in software systems engineering.  During his 2.5 years at GMU, he was awarded four grants (two U.S. Army, Sun Microsystems, and Digital Equipment Corporation) totaling $660,000. He was also instrumental in reshaping the master’s degree in software systems engineering.

As chair of the department of computer science, Dr. Davis was responsible for administration, planning, scheduling, and personnel management of the 18-faculty member department.

1984-1991: BTG, Inc., Vienna, Virginia
Vice President, Engineering Services (1984-1986)
Vice President, Director of Research (1986-1987)
Vice President, Engineering Technology (1987-1988)
Internal Consultant (1988-1991)

As Vice President of the two divisions, Dr. Davis was responsible for all financial, technical, administrative, marketing, and planning aspects of BTG's $4M services business. Business included systems engineering, configuration management, program management support, consulting, training, and software engineering research. During this time, Dr. Davis:

• Submitted eighteen new proposals totaling $26M

• Won 10 new contracts in configuration management, training, and software technology

• Played a key role in negotiating a $13.4M change order to an existing contract

• Program manager for ten training courses for the Naval Surface Warfare Center

• Program manager for four training courses for the U.S. Army Computer Science School, Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN

• Program manager for five-person contract to provide configuration management on a $110M Navy contract

• Trained half the employees in the Office of Systems of the Social Security Administration on their new software engineering methodology called SET

As Director of Research, Dr. Davis reported to the President of BTG and was responsible for all aspects of corporate research: writing proposals, participating in Independent Research and Development (IRAD) funding decisions, performing research, publishing and consulting. 

As internal consultant to the President of BTG, Inc., Dr. Davis performed a wide variety of assignments including writing speeches, performing joint research with other BTG staff members, teaching internal classes for BTG employees, and performing management and technical consulting on an as-needed basis.

BTG was acquired by Titan, Inc. in 2002 and L-3 Communications in 2007.

1983-1984: GTE Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona
Director, Common Systems Development

As Director of the Common Systems Development (CSD) Department, Dr. Davis had responsibility for half of all product development in GTE Communication Systems. This included digital hardware, operating systems, and systems diagnostics and recovery for all central office and PABX switching systems. CSD had a budget of over $16 million and employed 150 people. 

GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 1999 to create Verizon.

1977-1983: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, Massachusetts
Member of Technical Staff (1977-1978)
Manager, Software Engineering Department (1978-1981)
Director, Software Technology Center (1981-1983)

As member of technical staff, Dr. Davis developed tools for automation of software development.

As department manager, Dr. Davis was responsible for all aspects of software R&D and computer-aided design (CAD) R&D functions of GTE Laboratories.  The Department created automated tools and techniques for development of software and integrated circuits throughout GTE Corporation. Under his leadership, the department grew from 10 to 40 people.

As Director of Software Technology with an annual budget of $3 million, Dr. Davis directed 45 professionals exploring techniques to automate software and hardware development.  He was responsible for long-term strategic planning in software for GTE. He also served as:

• Chair of task force to analyze major GTE subsidiary to determine reasons for reduced profits; and to recommend how to improve productivity, sales, and profits

• Liaison in 1982 to two GTE divisions: Telecomunicazioni (Milan) and Automatic Electric; responsible for all transfer of telecom-munications, materials, software, and components technology.

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