Doug is the Founder and CEO of DSD Business Systems, a San Diego-based developer and provider of ERP, CRM, HR, and supply chain management software to businesses throughout the world. DSD is perennially recognized as one of the top ERP providers in North America, and its geographical breadth spans 30 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. Doug founded DSD in 1984 and still works full-time designing new software.

Doug’s success in business is based on the premise that strong ethics are the best service differentiator. In collaboration with a local school district, Doug founded the Ethics in Business event for high school seniors, which has been conducted continuously since 1991. DSD is proud to have won a Better Business Bureau Torch Award, which is a unique distinction in the software VAR industry.

Doug started his Cornell adventure in the Class of ’73 as a prospective mechanical engineer. Career confusion caused him to underperform and he left during his junior year. Doug took four years off, and when his life was more focused, he reapplied to Cornell. One of his life’s heroes, Professor & Department Chair Al George, replied that he would be accepted only when he had re-taken two courses at San Diego State University (SDSU) in which he did poorly in at Cornell. Prof. George also stipulated that Doug must get A’s in both courses, and provide letters from those two SDSU professors, that he was an exceptional student.

Doug was readmitted, and graduated with flying colors in 1979. Graduating from Cornell has always been his proudest, and most difficult achievement (he has no children), and he believes that his Cornell education and degree gave him the confidence and the knowledge to succeed at the highest level. He will always be grateful for the second chance that Cornell and Professor George gave him. It changed his life.