Don is one of Datacom’s founders and a primary individual in the setting of Datacom’s long term strategic direction.  Don is also Datacom’s largest single investor and has led Datacom’s first two funding stages, which were for Product Development (Stage 1) and Product, Hosting and Sales/Support Model Testing (Stage 2).

With a 1964 Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Minnesota, Don began his career with Control Data Corporation (CDC) in Minneapolis.  CDC grew into the leading supercomputer company in the world during the 1960’s and 1970's”, becoming a Fortune 200 company.

Over a 20-year career at CDC, Don progressed to executive positions and helped direct the explosive growth of CDC’s computer systems, peripherals and service businesses.  During his tenure at CDC Don:

• Headed up CDC's industry dominant OEM peripheral products sales, helping grow sales to over $700 million during his tenure.

• Launched CDC’s Peripheral Systems Group and grew it to over $300 million in sales in a three-year period.

• Directed CDC’s Government Systems Marketing Group, a $500 million segment of CDC’s business that provided computer systems and services to domestic and foreign government agencies.

• Headed CDC's entire Western European operations, a $900 million business segment covering 15 countries, 4,000 personnel, as well as manufacturing and data center facilities.

In 1984 Don left CDC to try his own hand at entrepreneuring. He first founded a Minneapolis based digital graphics company that went public as Digi-International.  Then, he purchased from CDC a facility in Bemidji that assembled cables and wire harnesses, which eventually went public as Nortech Systems.

In 1992 Don formed his own closely held technology company which he used as an incubator for the development of new computer industry technologies, among which were the dataSTOR application software products.

Long before the terms SaaS and Cloud Computing were popularized, Don’s original vision for Datacom embraced the global reach of the Internet and its power to revolutionize the ultimate design, delivery and support of enterprise applications, and thereby allowing for the emergence of new industry leaders.  With the mandate of becoming one of those new industry leaders, Don moved some of the core dataSTOR assets into a new corporate entity, Datacom, to focus resources towards that goal.

Don is a self-motivated, energetic, large corporation trained strategic leader with a proven success in recruiting key team members, building large businesses and quickly growing sales. In addition, over his many years as a resourceful entrepreneur he has become skilled in profit and balance sheet management.

Don assumed the President role in late 2008 to lead the Datacom through its market emergence phase

While Don has been Datacom's Chairman & CEO since its inception, he assumed the more active role of President in 2009 to help lead Datacom through the recession.

Based upon its closeness to the manufacturing industry, in mid 2011 Datacom concluded that the economic recovery, if not robust, was nonetheless underway.  It was also obvioius that investment in Cloud technologies was escalating.  For both of these reasons,  Datacom determined that it was time to move Datacom back into an expansion mode to prepare for the significant growth that occurs in those next years that follow a steep recession.

To help guide this next phase of Datacom's growth, Datacom recruited a strong President in July, 2011, with Don returning to the Chairman/CEO role. 

Don is a self-motivated, energetic, large corporation trained strategic leader with a proven success in recruiting key team members, building large businesses and quickly growing sales.  In addition, over his many years as a resourceful entrepreneur he has become skilled in profit and balance sheet management. 

Gary was a primary founder of Datacom, and is responsible for defining the dataSTOR functionality and leading it's development.  Gary is also one of Datacom’s largest individual investors.

Gary holds a physics degree from Colorado State University, and is a computer-industry veteran.  Gary also has significant experience and expertise in the build-to-order manufacturing sector.

Gary began his career with Control Data Corporation as a systems engineer and over a span of 16 years he advanced through a number of computer systems, software development, manufacturing and marketing management positions.  It was at CDC that Gary and Don Roepke became good friends.

Gary left CDC to become President of Curtis Electronics, a high-volume build-to-order manufacturing company with facilities in California, Arizona, and Minnesota.  During his tenure as President of Curtis, Gary grew the business from $5 million to $35 million in annual sales within a three-year period.  It was at Curtis that Gary became familiar with the enterprise software needs of the build-to-order manufacturer.

Gary left Curtis with the ideas to develop a superior enterprise software system for the mid manufacturing industry.  Gary was the key executive in charge of the design and development of the dataSTOR software products, and then led the redesign of the dataSTOR web-based ECM suite.

While providing manufacturing services to both small and large companies at Curtis, Gary developed a keen knowledge of the build-to-order model along with an appreciation of the needs and business personality of manufacturers.  These experiences, plus his vision as to how the Internet will transform the way manufactures will conduct their business, has contributed significantly to the dataSTOR strategy, model and product features.

The combination of Mr. Puffett’s experience in software development, manufacturing operations, business management and international business development, in both large and small company environments, uniquely qualifies him to direct the Company’s operations.

Ross Graba joined Datacom as President on July 18, 2011, and brings to Datacom over 20 years of information technology experience. 

With an Electrical Engineering Degree from North Dakota State University, Ross spent a number of years in technology positions with the US Government before joining Cross-USA, a Burnsville, Minnesota based IT Services firm, which utilizes rural outsourcing for much of its employment.   

As President of Cross, Ross guided them from a start-up to a sizeable, and profitable company.

Ross is a great fit with Datacom from a number of perspectives, including his experience in building a very successful IT services business.  While Ross has a strong knowledge of the ERP software industry,  he also has developed an appreciation for another key element of our business plan, that being the significant  professional services business that will result from the expansion of cloud computing.

Additionally, Ross recognizes through expereince the many advantages of utilizing employment from within rural communities, which is a core element of Datacom's growth strategy.

Sheldon was one of Datacom’s first employees, joining the Company in 2001.

With a strong background in web technologies, Sheldon led the web enabling and further application development of the dataSTOR products.

Sheldon then led the development of dataSIGN as a derivative of the dataSTOR applications.

During his tenure at Datacom, Sheldon has developed a strong knowledge of all three technology layers of the dataSTOR architecture, namely the database, the business logic and the user interface, and the interaction between these layers.

Sheldon is Datacom’s primary interface with its hosting partner, OpSource.

Prior to joining Datacom, Sheldon was an instructor of various Microsoft products related to database, programming and web development, and he was the owner/operator of his own web services company.

Prior to forming his own company, Sheldon spent 10 years with Pizza Hut in various management positions, playing a key role in help the company develop and implement its information technology plans.

Sheldon holds many Microsoft Certifications and has membership in various web technology related organizations, such as the International Webmasters Association and the HTML Writers Guild.

Mark joined Datacom in July 2007 as an Implementation specialist, and was promoted to his current position of Manager of Customer Training & Support in March 2008.

Currently, Mark is in charge of Product Implementation, Customer Training and Customer Support Operations for Datacom, working out of Datacom’s Grand Forks, ND office.  All of Datacom’s customer support personnel report to Mark.

Over the last four years, Mark has developed a strong knowledge of Datacom’s products and the manufacturers use of these tools to improve their efficiencies. Mark is very customer centric with great empathy for customer concerns. His calm and cheerful personality interfaces very well with customers.

Prior to joining Datacom, Mark was an accounting manager in the healthcare industry. He has over five years of accounting experience and ten years of system troubleshooting and repair in both the military and private sector.

Mark was raised in Rhode Island and has lived in Montana and North Dakota as part of his eight year enlistment in the US Air Force. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Montana State University – Billings as well as several certificates and distinction of training from the military.

Peter joined Datacom in February, 2011, as the Western Region Sales Manager for the dataSIGN Software Suite.  With Datacom's planned expansion, Peter was quickly promoted to General Sales Manager to help Datacom build its sales staff, while still maintaining quota responsibility for the Western Region.  Peter was also made Datacom's contact person for it membership in the World Sign Associates (WSA).

Peter received a BA degree from Concordia College in Moorehead, MN, in 1988.  While still in college, Peter became the political campaign manager for the very successful and popular Minnesota Senator James Ramsted.  In this role he corrordinated the fund raising, community events, and marketing activities for Senator Ramsted.

Upon graduation, Peter joined Barrett Sportswear in Bloomington, MN., as VP Retail Sales & Marketing. He expanded the sales team from 3 to over 100 national sales reps, and grew the company from a small screen printier to a national retail company.  As a part of the growth, Peter grew JC Penney from a local account to a national account that carried Barrett products in all of its stores.  It was a Barrett that Peter first experienced enterprise software from a user perspective.

In 1994, Peter co-founded Apparel Resouce, LLC., and over a 10 year period, Peter grew the company into an International provider of apparel products to such accounts as Target, JC Penney, Kohl's, Walmart and Musicland, and developed licensing relationships with Warner Bros., Universal and Fox Studios. At Apparel Resource, Peter became very closly involved with ERP systems.

In 2004 Peter returned to his roots in Wayzata, MN., to become a realtor for Edina Realty, buying and selling high end properties.  While excelling in the real estate business, Peter decided to return to his first love, that being sales management, and accepted an offer from Datacom.

Datacom expects Peter to be one of its sales/marketing management leaders as it continues to expand its markets and grow its sales and marketing team.