By Christine Imbs
Bryan Doerr loves to build things, especially when it comes to electronics.
"I've always loved building things," he says. "I wasn't particularly good at things like carpentry. But I did enjoy building model cars and electronic kind of things."
It was something his father took note of early on. In fact after one particular incident, he saw to it that his son had plenty of building opportunities.
"I remember bringing my Dad into my room and opening up my junk drawer. It held so much of nothing, but so much of everything," he says. "I pointed to it and said, 'I want to build something out of all this.' Of course it was an impossible request. But as a kid your father represents the person that knows. It doesn't matter what the topic is, he just knows. So at the time I thought if anyone could help me figure out what to build, it would be my Dad."
His father may not have known what to build at the time, but he did have an idea.
"He started buying me car models, erector sets, Lincoln Logs and just about anything he could find that was construction-oriented," he says smiling.
Doerr says as he became more aware of things like integrated circuit technology, his interest shifted to electronics. It was that interest that eventually led to his current position as chief technology officer for Savvis Inc., a global leader in IT infrastructure services. Still, despite his proclivity for electronics, Doerr says he really had no idea this is the path his career would take.
"I entered the University of Missouri-Columbia not even knowing I wanted to do electronics work. It was my first exposure to people studying IT and the kinds of problems they were working on," he explains. "So I started out in aerospace, but before the first semester ended I had shifted into electrical engineering."
After graduating with a Masters in Information Management, Doerr spent the next nine and one-half years in Maryland first obtaining a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and then working for John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. It was here he met Ed Lee.
"Ed taught me things about being an engineer that had nothing to do with how to design X, Y or Z," he says. "And he had this saying that I used to think didn't make much sense—'You're either buying or selling.' Now it makes a ton of sense which tells you how far I've come. One way or the other, you're always doing one of those things."
Doerr moved back to St. Louis in 1994 to work for McDonald-Douglas. He stayed through the acquisition
by Boeing until 2000 when he joined Bridge Information Systems Inc. The move represented a shift
in his career toward corporate IT. Unfortunately, Bridge filed for bankruptcy seven months after Doerr came on board. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He joined Savvis in 2000 as its vice president of software development. And in 2003, he became CTO providing technology leadership for infrastructure and product development, M&A support, and next generation platform evaluation.
"Obviously, as CTO my role's now more about directing the services side of the business," he says. "I meet with the press, investors, venture capitalists, customers, analysts and our board. It's lots of diverse conversations and topics. It's enormously educational and I enjoy it. But I admit I do miss building things."
Of course he did get the opportunity to lead the recent $45 million upgrade to Savvis' network and data center architecture. He refers to it as, "one fun project to lead." But generally these days he gets his fill of building at home.
"I like to do home automation," he says. "I have a touch panel in my hallway. And last year I built a home theater that allows me to control the video, lighting and sound all from one area. Needless to say, I have to do it the hard way—no prefab parts. It's like making a pie from scratch. Sure, you can go to the store and buy a pre-made pie shell, but it's much more satisfying getting your hands in the dough and seeing what you come up with."
TalkingPOINTS
BORN: St. Louis; His family history dates back to the 1860s in St. Louis.
FAMILY: Wife, Lisa and two sons.
BOOKS: History although he admits through his mid-30s his favorite were
the J.R.R. Tolkien books.
MUSIC: Jazz and Blues.
HOBBIES: Home automation; golf.
FUTURE PLANS: "I think IÕd like to teach perhaps at a university level." |
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