CEO Interview

November 19, 2007

Interview with InnovaTech CEO, Neal Levene

What is your role at InnovaTech?

• Neal Levene: I have been the CEO of InnvoaTech since 2003, when we spun off from Veridian, where I had managed a successful Data Warehouse Practice. Most of my time is involved with developing new business. InnovaTech’s management team is extremely strong, so one of the most important roles I have is staying out of the way of the extremely talented people that work here.

What are your biggest challenges in terms of growing the company right now?

• Neal Levene: I believe that, for us and everyone in the industry, it is making sure the customer experience is exceptional by looking at every aspect of our business and focusing it in on customer needs. That said, most small businesses that I speak with agree that finding top-notch technical staff who are also driven to solve a customer’s hardest problems is challenging. Unemployment is extremely low right now, and the best employees have many choices. We focus a lot of energy on making sure our company is a rewarding aspect of our employees’ lives. We have a great company, and we are constantly looking for people who have the right skills and desire to help us make an impact with our customers.

What are the IT solutions and services you provide today?

• Neal Levene: InnovaTech is a technology solutions provider. We specialize in data warehousing and knowledge management. Our mission is to help organizations make sense of their complex data. Our fastest growing markets are executive reporting, data integration and lifecycle management and information security.

What differentiates InnovaTech from other professional services providers?

• Neal Levene: We have mature processes and methodologies; however, we are not zealots. Our value added comes from working with our customers to find solutions that work within their environment. Our goal is to solve business problems. Our customers tell us that they appreciate that we ask good questions, work with them to overcome their obstacles, and are always there supporting them. Combined with our agility as a small business and strategic focus on emerging technologies, our approach has served our customers and us extremely well.

What will the company look like in three years?

• Neal Levene: I am very excited about our growth potential, and we will continue to focus on what we do best – solving complex data problems. We are a focused company and are highly selective regarding the new work that we take on. Our customers are extremely important to us, and we will always organize ourselves around their needs. Over the next few years, our goal is to strengthen our relationships with existing customers while adding several new customers. Growing our Washington D.C. and Austin, Texas presence is a particular focus.

When you recruit people what are they surprised to learn?

• Neal Levene: I think our candor and honest surprise people. Our company has an extremely human face. We have been successful in the past because people have stayed with us for extremely long times. A person spends more time at work than they spend in any other aspect of their lives. We want candidates to make an informed choice about coming to InnovaTech. Our expectations are high, we have extremely high standards of delivery, and we are organized to reward those people who bring value to our customers.

What advice would you give a potential technology or integrator partner?

• Neal Levene: We are always interested in hearing from companies who can demonstrate the value of emerging technologies or innovative applications of technologies that support our customer base. Customers often steer potential partners in our direction. Any company looking to penetrate the Federal market needs to do the research and clearly define how their solution helps solve an agency’s problem.

What advice would you give a potential employee?

• Neal Levene: Please be as honest with us as we will be with you. Resume padding is rampant these days, almost to the point that the resume’s value is greatly decreased. We never hire candidates who we find to misrepresent themselves. Self-motivated, top-notch people, with excellent technical and customer skills are going to thrive at InnovaTech. Mediocre performers will not enjoy their short stay with us.

How would you describe your leadership style?

• Neal Levene: My leadership style is to focus on the hardest part of our business: Growth. The most important component of growth is performing exceptionally on existing work. My expectation is that everybody constantly focuses on the needs of customers. My job, as an executive, is to provide the resources and the capabilities to help break down the barriers for individuals to do that. I surround myself with good people that are entrepreneurial in nature and let them go. I try to manage by consensus, hire smart people, and foster an exchange of ideas on how to proceed.

How do you describe the corporate culture at InnovaTech?

• Neal Levene: We have a very simple value system. We expect our professionals to wake up every day and exceed customer expectations. It is the people working with our customers day-to-day that get this job done. We are in a people business. As a result, we are very employee centric. We care very much about giving back to the community in which we serve. We focus on being easy to work with. We also expect that we will grow and be profitable.

What is one thing most people do not know about you personally?

• Neal Levene: My grandfather owned, with his brother, a small amusement park in Scranton, Pennsylvania (currently, the city in which the TV show, The Office, is set). It was a kids dream to spend a week or two visiting my grandparents in the summer: selling tickets, running the rides, and playing the pinball machines for free. It is certainly where I caught the entrepreneurial bug.

What is your favorite book?

• Neal Levene: Stephen King’s The Stand, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, and Jim Collins’s Good to Great. I try to read at least one good technical or business book per week. You’d be surprised how quickly that adds up.

What is your favorite movie?

• Neal Levene: Noises Off.

What is your favorite restaurant?

• Neal Levene: Columbia Restaurant in St Armand’s Circle in Sarasota, Florida – I love the 1905 Salad and their White Sangria.