Don Davis

Don's career in technology spans over 30 years. After graduating from The Ohio State University with a B.A. in Economics, he joined Ohio Bell as an Account Executive. After the AT&T divestiture, Don joined At&T Information Systems (Later to become Lucent). At AT&T-IS, Don served as a Technical Consultant and an Account Executive-Industry Consultant. After 8 years in the Bell System, Don entered the software world as an Account Executive for Goal Systems, a Columbus based Systems software company. Don and a small team at Goal helped to establish a new systems security software business.

 

After an eight year stint at Goal Systems, Don was recruited to work for another local start up, once again in the telecommunications industry. This regnal long distance company was LCI International. Don experienced tremendous success as a sales manager at LCI, achieving Charmain's Club and President's Club status yearly as one of the company's top performers. Upon departure, Don was managing a four state region with twelve sales and technical teams. While at Qwest, Don was recruited once again. This time to Sterling Commerce, a mid sized Columbus based software company with $400 million dollars in annual revenue. For the first six years at Sterling, Don was a regional sales director with sales responsibility for 23 states. In late 2010, Sterling Commerce was acquired by IBM Corporation. At IBM, Don was on a Worldwide team with the responsibility of supporting the establishment and growth of a business partner channel to distribute the products that IBM acquired in the Sterling Commerce acquisition and additional products that have become a part of IBM Software Group's Industry Solution brand and its Smarter Commerce market initiative. In his role, Don travels overseas frequently.

 

Although he has had global responsibility, his primary focus was on IBM's Growth Markets Unit (GMU) before retiring. The GMU includes regions like Africa/Middle East, Latin America, Asia Pacific, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In addition to Don's support of the BLF, Don, with his wife Barb co-chairs Ohio States Parents Advancement Council. Don is a "Buckeye for Life" and is a season ticket holder for both Ohio State and Men's basketball. Don's son Hunter is a student at Ohio State, majoring in Pharmaceutical Science and plans to pursue a PharmD after graduation.