Just as every team needs a good utility player, so does every company—especially a startup. When Rand was getting off the ground in 1987, it had Chris Walsh.
The company had just moved into a barren office in Chelsea, and Chris, who has a degree in electrical engineering, did anything and everything. He put up walls. He scraped windows. He spackled and painted. He moved furniture.
Once the office was up and running, Chris again helped out however he could. He answered phones. He made copies. He delivered mail and sent out faxes. He even fed the office cats (when they weren't catching mice).
Chris also pitched in outside the office, tagging along with Rand's Chief Engineer, climbing fire escapes, walking on roofs, checking out boiler rooms, and getting his hands dirty along the way. He was the utility player who never sat on the bench.
After stints as Engineering Assistant, Receptionist, and Office Manager, Chris was put in charge of Rand's "information system," which at the time consisted of two Leading Edge computers with a 10 MB hard drive and a 5¼-inch floppy disk. From those meager resources, Chris programmed (in dBase, which old-time techies will remember well) what eventually became Rand's in-house database and project management system, which the company used—with Chris's constant tweaking—for more than 20 years.
Having proved he was the ultimate team player, Chris was eventually groomed to run the firm's financial and administrative functions, which he oversees today as Rand's Chief Administrative Officer.
For more on Chris's role as Rand's jack of all trades, click on his photo above to see the latest in Rand's 25th anniversary ad campaign in Habitat magazine. (Our first two ads featured Faye Varone and Mike Larkin.)
While utility ball players serve their team well in different positions, they rarely rise to the level of greatness. But if you ask anyone at Rand who's worked with Chris over the years, they'll tell you he's a Hall of Famer.
