Tod Weber of Software AG on IT trends in the federal space

In his work for Software AG, Tod Weber and his team help organizations integrate disparate systems to extract more value out of their existing IT investments — a key step in an environment overrun by streamlined budgets. In the following Q&A, Weber talks about what brought him to Software AG, and how his team plays to continue carving out a strong presence in the federal space.

Could you tell us a little bit about your background.

Tod Weber: Sure, I have an aerospace engineering degree that I received from the University of Maryland in 1985. I actually started my career in the engineering world working on the F-22, which is the fighter aircraft that’s replacing the F-15. Then I moved into the software world in 1990.

I joined a software company called Parametric Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: PMTC) — it’s referred to a lot as PTC these days. The company was in the product development space and when I joined we were doing about $11 million in revenue. Eight years later we had the company up to $1 billion in revenue. So it was a very dramatic period of growth for us and it predated the dotcom hype — we did it by delivering 41 consecutive quarters of increasing profits and shipments. It was quite an experience to be a part of that.

Tell us about your growth at the company over the course of that 13-year period.

Tod Weber: I actually started with the company as what was called an applications engineer; I demonstrated the software for my first year, and then I moved into a sales rep position, and then I moved into a national account manager position, and then a district manager, and then a regional director, then an area vice president, then a sector vice president and the last title I had was a senior vice president.

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