Terry Hartsfield is technology-driven senior executive who is
acknowledged for his ethics, integrity and values, constantly
exhibiting behavior that sends a message of honesty, fair play,
compassion and tolerance; expecting the same from others. He is
approachable, manages conflict calmly with aplomb, and possesses
excellent listening and decision-making skills.
As a leader, he inspires and builds high-performance teams, and
publicly celebrates the wins and achievements of those teams. As a
change agent, he artfully transforms losses into profits, improves
processes, often with limited resources, and seamlessly leads teams
through rapid change.
Mr. Hartsfield’s academic credentials include a BS in Accounting from
Northeastern University in Boston, MA, with additional coursework
obtained at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton School of Business, Carnegie-Mellon University, American
Management Association etc.
His career began as a Regional Finance Manager with Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC), where he was hired to create the first
decentralized Finance and Administration organization in the US. He
then progressed through a series of increasingly demanding positions,
ranging from field operations to corporate G&A to product marketing.
In the mid-80’s Terry was recruited away by Apollo Computers, a $300M
rapidly-growing producer of workstations, to grow the business while
serving as Controller, North American Customer Service and Support as
well as virtual COO to the VP North American Customer Service.
The attraction of a startup with tremendous potential lured Terry to
Sun Microsystems two years later, with the challenge to build the
Customer Support Business. As with DEC, he progressed through a series
of enriching assignments in the areas of Service, Support, Engineering
and Quality. This Fortune 500’s customer base grew dramatically as
revenue increased from $125M to $3.5B.
Six years later Mr. Hartsfield decided to take a hiatus from corporate
life. Leveraging his quality, finance and customer service background,
he launched his own consultancy, Hartsfield Company. Serving as
Chairman of the American Electronic Association’s (AEA) quality
committee in Silicon Valley, he improved product development processes
for a $350M client, and designed the support infrastructure to enable
the sale of a $150M firm.
The opportunity to become a CEO presented itself in 1994 and Terry
joined Nova Controls, a $3M startup manufacturer of
microprocessor-based industrial control systems. He oversaw its growth
from $3M to $6M in six months. A year later he was tapped to turn
around a high-potential company, NetFRAME Systems. As VP of Customer
Satisfaction and Chief Quality Officer, he took service from a $2M
loss to $750K profit in 18 months. The firm stabilized and was sold to
Micron Technology.
Since that time Mr. Hartsfield has served as VP of Customer Service
for Network Equipment Technologies, VP of Customer Advocacy for
ShoreTel Communications, and, most recently, VP of Global Customer
Operations for InnoPath Software, leaving the company a few months ago
as a result of a change in corporate direction, job requirements and
the need to travel 50% of the time.
He is now seeking a new challenge. For the past 15+ years he has made
significant contributions to early stage companies. However an
opportunity at a mid-sized technology-based firm would also be
attractive, perhaps as VP of Global Customer Support Operations, COO
or even General Manager.
