Chris’s background in technology literally started with punch cards and the Fortran programming language on IBM mainframe many decades ago as his PhD dad proclaimed this was the future.  After a decade or so of developing software, he swore he’d never write another line of code.   He branched out into the emerging field of IT system design and process improvement.  This avenue took him all over the country providing design and consulting services from companies ranging from chocolate factories, to gold mines, to wineries, and mainstream businesses.  He designed everything from IT department staffing models, workflows and business processes, to large infrastructure projects, and even figured out how to build microwave communication towers in the middle of winter in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.

About the time Chris was tired of being relentlessly stuck somewhere in a distant airport trying to get home (again), he had already been engaged in a couple of projects with John and his company.  At the time, Chris was letting John and other key accounts know that he was looking to leave the world of IT consulting for a “simpler life.”  John’s answer was, “Let’s start a company together.”  The trajectory of what would eventually become Staffing Backbone had begun.

Fast forward to what now feels like three or four complete platform rewrites to leverage emerging technologies and to be responsive to the changes in the employment and staffing world, we set off to design and build our crown jewel that we finally believed was unique and responsive enough to meet the needs of the current marketplace, and more significantly, met our standards.  Many years ago, one of the lines that Chris used in the many industry seminars was, “It used to be that ‘getting there’ in IT was half the fun.  Well, in technology, it’s ‘all the fun’ as you’re never really there.”  With the advent of emerging technologies such as machine learning and AI, we’re never better, but we’re still not “there.”

Ironically, as part of the “simpler life” Chris was shooting for in building the perfect platform and resource for employment, he also began donating his time as a Reserve Police Officer.  He worked patrol and gradually was promoted to his current position of Reserve Police Captain overseeing a division of other volunteer police officers.  When patrol and street crime wasn’t enough, he leveraged his background in technology and electronics as well as a short stint as a Chemistry major in college to join a police bomb squad where he has responded to over 400 live explosive and hazardous events throughout the region.   And thankfully, other than a couple of dumb things and close calls, he still maintains 10 fingers.