Featured Alumni
Shaky Markets Still Hold Plenty Of Opportunity D ave Gray has built his career in the software business, serving as CEO of
Greg Houts (’97, finance) is quitting his full- time job and taking time off to travel the world, help charities and enjoy the “finan- cial blessings that God has given me.” Houts said that living and working in Bermuda for nearly eight years has been amazing, but now it is time to move on. He wants to continue consulting and perhaps leverage that into a Bermuda- based IT consulting firm. He hopes to secure consulting contracts in the U.S., Canada, Europe and South America while working remotely from Bermuda. He also wants to expand the U.S. real estate business he started with his cousin and other partners. “Without my accounting and financial skills learned (initially) at Auburn, I would never have been able to manage a successful small business through the ups and downs of real estate investment.” Leah Jones (’92, accounting) celebrated her 13th anniversary at Allscripts and soon after was named its chief financial officer. She looks forward to championing her compa- ny’s growth within the healthcare IT and life sciences industry, evolving along with health care. Auburn’s graduate placement program helped her find her first job with Georgia-Pacific. Working with Allscripts brought together her education, her specialization and a passion for health care. As she worked her
CEO, he grew the company from a startup to a global enterprise with 10,000 customers produc- ing double-digit revenue growth for 15 years. He said the current uncertain economy doesn’t concern him. While it gives some people pause, others look to find a good oppor- tunity, and long-term investors are bullish on the software space in the market. There’s a lot of private equity out there, he said, and he’s focusing on that. Most people he deals with view the current economic situation as temporary, and a wobbly stock market doesn’t scare them off. While he was building Daxco, he recruited many AU alums. He and his wife decided to move back to Alabama from Chicago because she was pregnant with twins, their first children, and they wanted to be closer to home. “When we got to Birmingham in 2003, I reconnected with Au- burn,” he said. “I went to campus to speak to classes. A lot of mem- bers of our team were Auburn graduates.” He was a founding member of the school’s Management and
three companies, two of which he started. The newest is only a few months old. Last June, Stoneybrook Ventures, headquartered in Birmingham, partnered with Pamlico Capital of Charlotte, North Carolina, to form a search company that will acquire one or more software-as-a-service (SaaS), B2B, mission-critical businesses. He said he is looking for businesses that need a CEO transition because they have grown too big for the founder to manage or because the founder wants to start another business or maybe just retire and go to the beach. Gray will take a majority share, serve as CEO, and grow the company over time. He said he’ll likely buy more than one company but keep them under the same umbrella to consolidate management. Gray already had a relationship with Pamlico Capital through Daxco, a Birmingham company where he was CEO for 15 years and served on the board for three more. During that time Daxco bought eight other companies using a similar method: They made one initial acquisition and then looked for others that fit well. Daxco was and is a busi- ness-to-business SaaS compa- ny that provides software and services to health-and-wellness, member-driven organizations like the YMCA, large fitness com- panies like Crossfit, recreation centers, hotels and others. As
Information Systems Advisory Board and a member of the Harbert College of Business Advisory Council for several years.
Dave Gray (’93, management) CEO Stoneybrook Ventures
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