About Gene
Technology has always been one of my passions. So have the building and fixing of machines and systems. I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and my youth coincided with the beginning of America’s technology boom.
After graduating from the Arundel Institute of Technology in 1982, I was fortunate to enter the work world at a young company that had, only the year before, been selected by IBM to build the microprocessors for their computers. The company is called Intel, and in working there I was able to contribute to—and learn from—one of the great success stories in American technology.
My job at Intel was “customer engineer.” I installed and maintained supercomputers (IBM PCs), as well as networks for their major US Army contract. I also learned the basics of customer service, including how to understand the business objectives of customers, the role of technology in meeting those objectives, and the most effective and economical ways of selecting, installing and maintaining that technology.
I left Intel because I wanted to work in a wider variety of projects and in a more intimate team setting. For nine years, I was a network consultant for two Baltimore-area computer firms and had opportunities to service clients in accounting, law, management consulting, finance, communications, human services and other fields, each with its own unique needs and circumstances.
Some unfortunate business decisions by my last employer, along with their eventual collapse, became my incentive to begin a new venture in 2001, one in which I could put to work nearly 20 years of accumulative experience and lessons learned. That venture was BrightLink Technologies, LLC. BrightLink started with two clients and operated from a small bedroom in my home.
Today, BrightLink still operates from a home office—a bigger office in a bigger home—but has more than 30 clients. My geographic focus remains on the Greater Baltimore area, and my practical focus remains on customer service. Success as a business owner means that I have been able to cultivate professional and personal relationships with my customers. I have never advertised but that is because my business has grown through referrals to associates, friends and families of customers. That is the highest compliment.
I generally work alone, allowing a level of intimacy with my clients that I could never have achieved working as an employee for a corporation. When I refer another expert to a client, or I employ one for a specific purpose, it is under strict oversight in order to maintain complete customer satisfaction. I genuinely care about the success of my clients, and my ability to derive the best and most cost-efficient technology solutions to their business needs has been critical to my success…and theirs, too.
At home, I often can be found researching technology, or working on proposals, or developing solutions to client needs. But I’m not a “workaholic” or a “geek.” I enjoy playing sports and coaching my son’s sports teams, waterfowling and four-wheeling. Most of all, I enjoy spending time with my family. They are the biggest passion in my life.