In
Christopher Hornbecker
Profile
When Chris Hornbecker entered WVU, he was very uncertain about his desired career. He thought about medical school, but hated biology. He had done computer programming as a child, so he thought about a computer related major. When he heard about Industrial Engineering in freshman engineering, he decided that would be his major. “I liked the combination of business and engineering that IE offered,” Chris says.
Chris had internships with Pangborn Corp, a manufacturer of surface preparation systems, since he was 17 years old. When Chris graduated, he went to work for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) as an analyst. “This was the time of bank deregulation work, so there was a lot of need for information technology consulting. Essentially, we worked around the clock and I chose the 11pm-7am shift.”
After being with Andersen for less than a year, Chris formed his own company, Powerlink Technologies, LLC. “We were able to connect electrical control systems to the rest of a company’s information systems.” This was an early example of what is now called Internet of Things. One project that Chris describes is especially fascinating. They built a video game that allowed nuclear plant operators to quicker positioning of cranes for handling nuclear control rods in the event of a nuclear plant crisis event. Chris eventually sold Powerlink’s technology to a customer.
He still had the entrepreneurial urge, so he formed The Solutions Developers Corporation. Solutions Developers developed and hosted applications for many associations and nonprofit corporations. He continued in his position as CEO of Solutions Developers for 10 years and eventually sold his interest to his partner.
A year later, Chris formed XGILITY, a technology solutions company that transforms the way their clients do business. “Our focus is on enterprise collaboration and cloud based technologies, which improve productivity.” XGILITY was recently ranked 144/500 of the fastest growing companies by Inc. magazine.
For Chris, the culture of the organization is critical. “I look at character when I hire people. If you don’t have the right people, your organization will not be a success.” Chris is especially proud of how XGILITY gives back to the community.
When asked what’s next, Chris responded: “I want to build more leaders and contribute to the support of others.”
Chris asked that one final comment be noted in this interview. “The team facilitation class that I had at WVU was the most important class I took. The confidence you gain in leading people that was developed in that class has been critical to my career.”
Bio
Chris Hornbecker
Achieve Transformational Results with Enterprise Productivity, Collaboration and CloudSolutions
Summary
Christopher Hornbecker is a seasoned executive with a successful track record of building and managing technology companies. Chris is a founder of Xgility, a IT services provider specializing in transforming the way organizations work and share information through the implementation of collaboration and cloud productivity solutions. Xgility serves commercial and federal sectors, specializing in the delivery of solutions using Agile methodologies.
Prior to founding Xgility, Chris served as Chief Executive Officer for Solutions Developers, a application development company serving commercial, non-profit and government sector clients. During his tenure, Chris led Solutions Developers to ten consecutive years of growth and profitability without external investment.
In 1996, Chris founded Powerlink Technologies, a company that created custom logistics, distribution and inventory tracking solutions for Fortune 1000 companies such as Duke Energy, CVS and Elizabeth Arden. He spent his early career working for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) building enterprise software and data management solutions for the the deregulation of the telecommunications industry.
Chris holds a degree in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from West Virginia University. He is an is an active member of national CEO organization, Vistage. Mr. Hornbecker is certified as a Scrum Master in agile project management. He lives in Ashburn, VA with his wife and three children.
Specialties: Agile Project Management, Enterprise Cloud Technologies, Collaboration & Workflow Technologies, Gov2.0, Office 365, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Azure
Experience
President at XGILITY
March 2011 – Present
Board of Directors at Association for Enterprise Information
June 2011 – January 2017 (5 years 8 months)
AFEI provides a platform for collaboration between government and industry on important and timely issues related to information across the enterprise. Provide Guidance and Assistance to President of AFEI and AFEI leadership on collaboration strategies and agile software development related issues in the federal sphere of influence.
CEO at The SolutionsDevelopers Corporation
April 2000 – September 2010 (10 years 6 months)
Managing Partner
1996 – 2000 (5 years)
Analyst at Andersen Consulting
1996 – 1996 (1 year)
Engineer
1990 – 1995 (6 years)
Education
West Virginia University
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, 1991 – 1995
Activities and Societies: Pi Kappa Alpha
