10 Questions with Catawba County Chief Information Officer Terry Bledsoe

Terry is a Participant on the Catawba County Future Economic Council with 30+ other talented people and myself. He had an excellent presentation about Broadband during our last meeting (Look to the Broadband Connectivity Heading in this report). I would like to thank him for his participation in answering these questions and I hope you enjoy getting to know what Mr. Bledsoe is all about. Here is a link to Terry's Catawba County Technology Department Blog. (#4 in the series)

1) Can you give us some background and a history of yourself? (Where were you born? What is your educational background? Why did you come to or stay in Hickory? Tell us about your professional accomplishments.) - I was born in Catawba County and lived here all my life with the exception of some time I spent away in college. My family roots to Catawba County are very deep and can be traced back to land grants from the King of England. One side of my family comes from the Baker's for whom Baker's Mountain was named. I attended Appalachian State University and majored in Mathematics. I later received a Masters degree and an EDS degree from there. I started my career as a teacher at St. Stephens High School and after that moved to the technology field with Catawba County Schools. After 30 years with the school system, I retired as their Chief Technology Officer. From there I spent a year at IBM working on a statewide computer project. When the CIO position opened up for Catawba County, I applied for that job and was fortunate enough to get it.

Why have I stayed here? This is truly my home. The people are friendly and look out for each other. It is a good place to raise a family. The scenery is beautiful, especially my view of Baker's Mountain. And the climate changes just enough to be interesting. While I love to travel and visit other places, it is always good to come back home.

2) Tell us about the accomplishments you are proudest of achieving in your life? Something besides having a family or raising children. We all recognize that those are common goals that we all aspire to. What’s the most exciting thing you saw/did/experienced/were a part of in your personal life? In your professional life? Hopefully during my career, I have had an impact on the technology in our schools and in our county. Catawba County has always been viewed as a leader and a progressive county and I have been given the opportunity to implement many innovative technology programs in our schools that are considered common place today. In my current role I have also been given the same opportunity to make innovative changes. These changes provide better services for our citizens and that is what it is all about.

In my personal life I will have to divert back to family and grandkids. Anyone who has grandkids will know that they are a blessing that keeps you in constant amazement. In addition to the grandkids, my daughter and her husband own Court Street Grille in Lincolnton. They give me a chance to cook and entertain which is a real enjoyable change from my normal technical world. We are also working to preserve and bring back the family farm. While this is really hard work, the results are very rewarding.

The most exciting thing in my professional life is the constantly changing technology. Some people complain about how fast it is changing. I can't wait to get my hands on the next innovation and figure out how we can take advantage of it.

3) If I were to ask people that know you to describe you what would they say? Hopefully they would say honest, creative, innovative and someone with integrity.

4) How much bearing do the opinions of the people around you have on your decisions? I listen to people and value their opinions but all decisions have to come down to one question, "Is it the best solution for all involved?"

5) Can you tell us of a professional mistake that you have made that may have had an impact on who you are today? Does it still bother you? Can you share with us how you came to grips with that error? There has not been a professional mistake that is still impacting me today. My philosophy has always been while everyone makes mistakes, we need to study them and learn from them and emerge with a better product or solutions. In every project, successful or not, little or small, we need to study what we did right and what we did wrong and ask the question, "How can I do it better next time?"

6) If you were given enough money to tackle one project (think nearly unlimited) that you felt was important to the Hickory Area, what would that issue be? As a lot of you know, I am passionate about bringing better broadband connectivity to Catawba County. I would love to see fiber to the home across the county, especially to my home in Vale. However, if I had money to tackle one problem, I would use it to concentrate on the homeless, hungry and unemployed in our area. With all the empty building and excess food we have in this county, there is really no reason for anyone to be on the street and hungry.

7) Let’s say there is no money available for the foreseeable future. What one project (priority) would you push as part of your agenda that can be done with little or no money? I am involved with the County's Green Team. It is amazing how much impact each and every one of us can have on the environment if we just reduce, recycle, and reuse. Together, that impact increases exponentially. America must reduce our consumption of goods and oil. "Going Green" is the popular term that is a start in that direction. We can start this minute with no money invested at all.

8) What is your overall philosophy of the development of this area? Where would you like to see us in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? I think Catawba County needs to look very hard at the lessons that we have learned in the past 10 years and begin to create an economy that is more resilient and able to adapt quickly to the constant world of change that we live in. This will not be easy but it must be done. We need to rethink literally everything, from education to government, from services to infrastructure. We should be able to support a creative society that could work or provide services anywhere in the world while still living here. We need to educate our children so that they have the skills to constantly learn and adapt. We need to provide our citizens with opportunities to acquire skills for the workforce that will continually change throughout their lifetime. We need to realize that the economy and the jobs of the 90's will not return and concentrate on the opportunities of the future.

9) If you could define your Personal Legacy what would you like it to be? What would you like to be remembered for? As I stated earlier, I love technology and the constantly changing opportunities that it offers us. I hope that I have used that passion to improve our schools and our county. I hope that I have made things a little better for everyone that lives here.

10) How do you define Leadership? I believe that leadership is defined by one's ability to help the ones around you achieve to their highest level. I believe that people should be constantly learning, creating, and seeking to improve. It is my job as a leader to encourage and support them.