GAINESVILLE, FL:  Times sure have changed for Dan Boccabella (BS ISE 1993). Since co-founding a company upon graduation, his company has been acquired and taken private. However, his new firm, SumTotal Systems relocated its headquarters to Gainesville, so that part of his life did not change. But as Vice President of Product Development, he now deals with 1000 employees (200 in Gainesville) as opposed to a handful.  The company is one of the leading providers of talent management software systems, boasting a significant portion of Fortune 500 companies as clients.  And they continue to increase their portfolio of offerings through new product development and acquisitions, including Softscape and Accero.

He credits his engineering degree, as well as his MBA, for contributing to his success.  “The biggest thing I got out of my engineering degree was problem solving,” he said. “It is something that is going to serve you,” he told students in the Sales Engineering Seminar on Tuesday, October 23.

But he also cautioned that being a great engineer does not necessarily translate into running a great engineering business. (He told the students to read E-myth revisited.) Thus, it is important that one finds strong partners.