Today we’d like to introduce you to John Ahlberg.
John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My story started in college. I was going to business school and bought my first computer. I found it easy for me to understand and use and because of that, people noticed and asked me to help them or their companies. After graduating with a business degree I moved to Chicago to look for a job and ended up doing some computer consulting with a neighbor. One day he told me I should go into IT management. This was before the internet and a lot of what we do daily with technology so I got the newspaper and applied for an IT Manager position and two weeks later I had the job and my career was set. Before starting my company 13 years ago I was the CIO for a commercial real estate investment bank.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I may be one of the lucky ones since it was a smooth road for me. I’ve always had really good leaders and co-workers. Much of the time I was given some direction ad told to make it happen, which turned out to be the best way for me to be successful. I have carried that philosophy with me throughout my positions and outside of work.
Please tell us about Waident Technology Solutions.
Simply put. my company is the IT department for small to mid-sized businesses. We break that down into three functional areas – high touch end-user support (Helpdesk – we help the user with anything they need and I do mean anything), core technology management (the stuff in the server room that the client does not know what it does but know they need it working reliably), and strategic guidance We act as an IT guidance counselor to make sure risks are mitigated, security is tight, and tech is working on the business objectives).
Our philosophy stems from the fact that people come first and everything we do with the technology has to relate to the people or the business. There are way too many tech firms these days that care about the computer more than the user which is sad. We only work with clients that are a good culture fit. We actually interview prospective clients for culture.
I am most proud of my team. We have a great team in place and everyone treats each other as family. Life outside of work comes first for everyone. We want them to come to work late so they can see their kid’s school event rather than miss it.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I grew up in Baltimore and every summer we would go to the beach in Ocean City. I remember waking up early and walking the beach to find shells and see all of the critters that washed up overnight like the horseshoe crabs.
Contact Info:
- Address: 20 North Wacker
Suite 3700 Chicago, IL 60606 - Website: www.waident.com
- Phone: 630-547-7000
- Email: info@waident.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waident/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Waident
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