Stephen Imholt

Steve Imholt is a long time project manager, IT architect, designer and developer. Steve has been both witness and part of the evolution of the Information Age. He has worked with computers since the days of punched cards and designed services to operate within the cloud.

Steve has had a front line view of the evolution of technology.

In the 1970’s Steve gained his initial experiences in healthcare as a systems engineer trainee at EDS. This was the time where the Medicare processing expansion hit its stride. This was followed by a short time where he worked at Merchant’s National Bank. It was here where he helped implement the banks first interest bearing checking accounts. This was followed by a period where Steve was the DP manager for a grocery store chain just as Universal Product Codes were being introduced to the grocery industry.

In the 1980’s Steve gained even more experience in the health care field in both hospitals and insurers. This was a time where there were rapid changes in health insurance. New concepts such as HMOs and PPOs were added by insurance companies. New frameworks such as Certificates of Need and health networks were added. These were all failed attempts to get health care costs under control.

It was during this time that Steve dabbled in local politics being elected to a local school board. There he served as co-chair of the finance committee. After moving because of job changes, Steve then served on a community library board. Steve developed a better understanding of political groups because of these experiences. He also saw how politics was very different between the levels of government. Steve saw how special interest groups of all types were beginning to affect all the layers of government.

Technology in the 1980s and 90s was the age of the Client Server world. Along with companies like HP and Compaq, Steve’s skills changed to be a force within that world. From one engagement, he learned about the real complexities of safely disposing of hazardous materials. He also learned about the pork barrel regulations. Regulations such as excluding sites where Congressman received large contributions. It was these kinds of regulations that blocked moves to clean up some parts of the environment. That was the Environmental Protection Agency of the time. Sadly, it is also the EPA of today, simply with a different set of special interests.

In the mid-90s Steve was asked to manage the development of a mortgage loan origination system. These loans were for manufactured housing, which most people call mobile homes. The origination system was a way for a Real Estate Investment Trusts to create Securities. Because mobile home loans usually were less than high quality, they became part of the Subprime Mortgage Loan market. It was these types of Securities many people blame as a major cause of the Great Recession.

From there after failing at starting his own IT business, Steve became a software Architect. He took that role beginning in the summer of 2001 working for Tauck which is the world’s oldest group travel company. They were located outside of New York City in Westport Connecticut. Tauck was devastated by 9/11. In the course of two weeks, that company, like others, saw the size of its business drop in half. Steve was fortunate enough to be able to continue working with them until 2003. At that time, the company could no longer support the size and scope of their re-engineering efforts. As a result, they offered and Steve took a “retirement” package.

Finally in early 2004 Steve began work as a contractor with Hewlett Packard on the New York City ECTP program. ECTP was a NYC program to update the city’s emergency response systems. There Steve learned about the bid and development processes used by government agencies. Those same processes were seen later during his time at the United States Postal Service Project. As Steve helped an old friend bid on a Veterans administration project he learned that these processes were not unique to HP. Instead the processes for both bids and development are dictated by the government rules.

Multiple HP projects followed. While a few dealt with the commercial sectors, most projects continued to be in government. Some were in national defense or hospitals. Other projects were in state government and education. As Steve’s experiences proved increasingly valuable, Steve provided trouble-shooting support for several HP projects. These projects were generally those which were part of acquired companies. After the acquisition was completed was when the troubles became obvious. In most of these situations, at least part of the source of the trouble was in the flawed bid and project award processes themselves. In others it was the demand that changes have little or no effect on existing processes. The common thread was that all of these projects were inconsistent in the requirements and the solutions, in large part because of the bid and development processes.

All of these projects led him to the conclusion that the development process was no different between state and federal government. This was unfortunate, because these processes do not work.

Steve as an architect began looking for the real core issues confronting integrating technology with government. Why government systems are so difficult to successfully change or replace? Can the public in concert with business deliver a better way for technology to assist government?

All of these experiences directly lead to the Government 2.0 series of books.

On the public service side, Steve was elected a member of the Rockford Illinois School Board in the early 1980s. At the time, the School District was the second largest school district in Illinois after Chicago. Steve served on the Hampshire Library Board in the late 1980s where he helped get a new library for this Illinois town of less than 2000 people.

And now In 2015 Steve is running for the Virginia House of delegates as an independent.

Steve lives in Richmond Virginia with his wife Toni. Together, they raised three girls and a boy. Their children are now adults with successful careers in technology, education, medicine and the law (today’s version of a child-rearing grand slam).

While Steve makes woefully inadequate attempts to help mentor three of the four granddaughters, while his wife succeeds in rearing the next generation as the preeminent grandma at our home now renamed Gram’s House.