
The Rochester Top 100 Companies list is a celebration of successful companies that have risen above economic downturn and business struggles. Join us as we highlight two companies that embraced technology to transform manufacturing into some of the most needed technology today. Both of these companies beat the odds so greatly that they made it to the Rochester Top 100 Companies of 2009! The leaders of these companies will share with you their struggles and strengths, their ability to change and how they strive for continued business success – all while motivating the people around them in a very challenging technological environment.
WHAT: Digital Rochester’s Rising Stars
WHEN: Thursday, February 11th; 7:30 am – 9:30 am
WHERE: Rochester Museum & Science Center, Bausch Auditorium
657 East Ave.
SPEAKERS:
- Mark Gibson, President and Co-Founder, Xelic, Inc.
- Mike Bechtold, President, OptiPro Systems
SPONSORS: This event has been made possible by The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE).
We at DR wanted to spend some time bringing you the thoughts of DR’s new President, Josh Bouk. We hope you enjoy this interview about DR and where it’s headed!
FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS DR?
Digital Rochester is a not-for-profit organization focused on building and empowering the tech industry in the Greater Rochester area. But what does that mean? It means that DR creates value within the Greater Rochester tech industry by building connections within the “tech sector value chain”. That value chain is made up of a variety of relationships – employer to employee; investor to entrepreneur; customer to supplier; student to educator; etc. Each of these relationships represent real economic value in our area and the sum of the value in these relationships is the value of Rochester’s tech industry. So when I say DR exists to build connections within that value chain, it means that everything we do is focused on creating and strengthening these relationships, thereby driving new or increased economic value to our region.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH DR AND HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?
I began coming to DR events back in 2001 at Tonic and over the years, I was a “casual” member – coming to a few events here and there but never getting actively involved. However, about five years ago, I began recognizing that while I believed Rochester was a great place to raise a family, the direction that Rochester (and New York State) was headed did not give my family – my kids – the best chance of staying in the area over the next few decades. Now I could choose to sit back and tell myself that the problem was too big to tackle, but instead, I decided I wanted to try to make whatever difference I could. Since I’ve always been in the tech sector Continue reading INTERVIEW WITH DR’s NEW PRESIDENT