It’s everywhere: Technology has become an integral part of our lives in the twenty-first century, providing the tools for something as simple as sending a message to a friend, or as complex as keeping track of an international logistics route. And Memphis is home to many companies and professionals in the technology field who strive to find innovative and cutting-edge solutions to any problem.
In partnership with the Society of Information Management Memphis Chapter, Memphis Magazine is pleased to honor the winners of our inaugural MEMTECH Awards, dedicated to celebrating the tech leaders and innovators in the Greater Memphis area. Be it the supply chain, education, or security, our eight winners can handle anything from crisis management to community leadership, and all continue to keep pushing Memphis forward.
Our eight MEMTECH winners will be honored at a dinner event at the FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms on Thursday, February 8th, with more information available at memtechawards.com.
photograph by isaac singleton
Calandra Cleveland
Trailblazer Award
Calandra Cleveland fell in love with technology in third grade, at Landmark Elementary School in Little Rock. Defying every gender stereotype about “hard science” and girls, Cleveland enveloped herself in a world of computer programming, software, and electronic connectivity we casually know today as IT. By seventh grade, she had designed her first website.
“I come from a humble background,” says Cleveland, who moved to Memphis with her family in 1996, a year before she graduated from Hamilton High School. “All of my access to technology came from school or in programs for inner-city youth. I thought computers were the coolest things. I was very inquisitive. I wanted to learn how these machines worked, how they’re put together.” Armed with a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Memphis, Cleveland began a career path that has included stops at perhaps the four most-recognized institutions in the Mid-South: International Paper, FedEx (twice), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and since 2017, AutoZone.
“I really thought I was going to be a software developer,” reflects Cleveland, “but I didn’t get a job in that space. I got a job in the operations, support, and administrative space. So it’s been administration, but with development on the side in all my roles. [At FedEx], every new project came through operations. You have servers and systems that are deployed, and [operations] supports the technology after they’re deployed.” The global impact fit Cleveland nicely, along with the philanthropic emphasis she’s recognized in each of her employers.
What has made AutoZone the right fit at this stage of Cleveland’s career? “AutoZone cares about people,” she emphasizes. “We are intentional about growth, career-wise, and opportunities both locally and globally.”
“Even if you don’t have the resources in your home, there are so many tools out there, and people willing to get those tools in your hands. So get on the internet and find what’s available locally to help you grow.” — Calandra Cleveland
Cleveland chuckles at the notion that she “saved” her company when the pandemic struck in 2020, forcing remote work in a company that prides itself on personal interaction with customers. “I was brought to AutoZone to promote collaboration,” she says, “and how to work where you don’t have to be in a building. This was prior to the pandemic. We didn’t have a remote culture, but then the pandemic hit ... and we had to leave the building. It was a two-year buildup of putting documentation together, writing the business case, telling the story of what it would look like if you didn’t have to work in the same place. We were ready.”
With artificial intelligence dominating tech talk these days, Cleveland finds herself examining an area she’s studied from one angle or another for two decades. “My thoughts have shifted,” she notes, “from ‘Can we do it?’ to ‘How can we contain it?,’ knowing it can be misused and misunderstood. How can we use these tools to accelerate our IT initiatives but still protect the organization?”
As for current third-graders who feel a pull toward technology, Cleveland offers some distinctive wisdom. “Even if you don’t have the resources in your home,” she says, “there are so many tools out there, and people willing to get those tools in your hands. So get on the internet and find what’s available locally to help you grow. And don’t be afraid to explore an area where there may be people who don’t look like you. The more you’re in that space, the more there will be others like you.” — Frank Murtaugh
photograph by andrea fenise
Audrey Willis
Community Leader of the Year
Technology wasn’t simply a hobby for CodeCrew co-founder Audrey Willis. Rather, she credits it with saving her life when she was growing up. “I was raised by relatives since my mother had a drug addiction,” she says, “and I really could have ended up as a statistic, like so many Memphis children today. So I was a gamer early on. I played around with a word processor and tinkered, running little games in the command line and things like that. It was a very informal introduction to technology.”
That passion has remained strong since her childhood, and Willis started CodeCrew in 2015 alongside co-founders Meka Egwuekwe and Petya Grady to let Memphis kids kindle their own interest in technology. The organization is dedicated to mentoring underserved youth to become tech leaders and pursue innovation in Memphis and beyond, and since it launched, has served around 12,000 students through camps, electives, classes, and other events.
Willis currently acts as program director for CodeCrew’s Code School, an intensive six-month course constructed to train students to become entry-level software developers. “This part of our organization is nearest and dearest to my heart, because I know a lot of these kids are coming from backgrounds where there may not be a two-parent household,” she says. “There may not be somebody with an advanced degree in computer science that’s showing them the pathway to get into technology. Memphis’ crime problem is rooted in poverty, and if we figure out a way to get some of these kids into high-wage tech jobs, we not only change that child or that young adult’s direction of life, we can change an entire family’s trajectory.”
“Our students will be looking for $50,000 to $60,000 jobs right out of the gate. We’re building homeowners, folks that go from apartments to houses, and folks who go from Ubering to having a vehicle that they have purchased.” — Audrey Willis
But CodeCrew’s efforts extend beyond workforce preparation. Partnerships with other philanthropic organizations are carefully organized to make sure students who enroll in Code School have the best platform to succeed and carve out a successful career in the tech industry. If they don’t have transportation, MyCityRides can set them up with a scooter. If they don’t have the proper equipment, laptops will be provided thanks to partnership funding. And if they come from a troubled home, Agape Child & Family Services has counselors ready to help students process their trauma.
It truly is a community effort, with so many organizations working hand-in-hand to give underserved youth a chance. But the overall impact, Willis hopes, will extend beyond the CodeCrew participants and on to future generations.
“Our students will be looking for $50,000 to $60,000 jobs right out of the gate,” she says. “We’re building homeowners, folks that go from apartments to houses, and folks who go from Ubering to having a vehicle that they have purchased.
“It’s about cultivating this technical pipeline,” she continues. “We want Memphis to be the biggest creator of Black and brown tech talent in the state of Tennessee, and to have outside companies look at us and see Memphis as an attractive place to be. And so the long game is to set up CodeCrew chapters around the country to replicate this talent building for local economies.” — Samuel X. Cicci
photograph courtesy orgill
Marc Hamer
CIO / IT Leader — Private
Companies succeed when they make the most of growth and competitive advantages, and Marc Hamer has shown how to best use technology to get there. As executive vice president, CIO, and CTO at Orgill, he helps steer the company’s strategic tech by providing leadership for planning, executing, and alignment.
His talents are focused on tending to business goals, overseeing infrastructure and software development, fostering innovation, and managing digital transformation. This heavy lifting involves evaluation of emerging technologies, establishment of governance frameworks, and collaboration with various business units to deliver scalable and secure solutions.
As leader of the tech team, he cultivates a culture of technological excellence within Orgill. In his tenure, he has restructured the technology team, worked on the acquisition of a technology development company, and significantly increased the footprint of Orgill’s technology capabilities inside the company and for customers.
Under Hamer’s leadership, Orgill has seen substantial technological growth, highlighted by the modernization of the corporate-wide network infrastructure, completion of the Central Network Retail Group Industry Product Information Management, and implementation of Orgill’s Master Data Management Solutions. He’s also implemented the company’s Salesforce CRM, upgrading Orgill’s mainframe operating systems.
Hamer says that the dynamic nature of technology brings opportunities for success at Orgill. He emphasizes that flexibility and adaptability are crucial in the face of evolving technology. “With Orgill’s approximately 7,000 employees, the priority lies in seamlessly integrating new technology with existing systems, ensuring data security and compliance, and staying ahead of industry trends to drive significant value for the company and our customers.” To do that requires a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
He emphasizes teamwork, and has established goals aligned with organizational objectives within Orgill. There are team-building activities, professional development opportunities, and decision-making authority within the tech teams.
Essential to the entire process is innovation. Hamer says it involves four key perspectives:
- People: The well-being and health of the tech team to support work-life balance and professional development and growth. Attention is paid to open communication and a positive work environment to help foster creativity and collaboration.
- Technology: Orgill’s focus includes increased scalability, reliability, resilience, robust cybersecurity measures, and consistent modernization. This is done to balance cost management with the company’s goals and capabilities.
- Master Data Management: Hamer employs a comprehensive data governance framework that prioritizes data quality through validation, cleansing, and enrichment. Business process integration through the use of clean data ensures a holistic view of performance and predictability.
- Emerging Technologies: Hamer and his technology team explore and monitor emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning and automation, engaging in proof of concepts and pilots, and promoting cross-functional collaboration.
Before coming to Orgill, Hamer worked at Sealed Air Corporation (as corporate VP, customer experience, CIO, and CDO) and Babcock & Wilcox (global chief information officer). He’s also been an executive in the defense industry with Northrop Grumman and Raytheon as well as in the healthcare and distribution industry as an executive with Thermo Fisher Scientific. — Jon W. Sparks
photograph courtesy sylvamo
Lana Davenport
Cybersecurity Leader of the Year
When Lana Davenport emigrated from Russia, she brought with her an intercultural communications degree and the intention to teach foreign languages — German or Russian. But that wasn’t exactly a high-in-demand field at the time, especially not in Tennessee, she soon learned, so the head of the Russian department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, asked her what her American dream would be.
“I had to give it a thought,” she says. “And I think, ‘I’m good at math. I’m kind of curious about computers. I really have not done much with computers or computer science back in Russia.’ So this is something I was curious about. And next thing I thought, ‘Well, why not try myself in computer science?’ So I signed up for a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Tennessee. … I’ve never looked back.”
In 2003, Davenport graduated from UT and got a job at International Paper. A few years later she pursued a new opportunity at FedEx in an unfamiliar field, that of information security — what would later become known as cybersecurity.
“I hadn’t learned a whole lot about it in college,” she says. “It was love at first sight. It kept my curiosity because it evolves very fast. Many times in my career, I’ve asked myself if I want to do something else, and every time, I just thought, ‘Well, I love security so much,’ and I just stay.”
Today, Davenport works for Sylvamo as its chief information security officer. Founded in 2021, Sylvamo is a Memphis-based paper company with an emphasis on sustainability. Davenport was hired at the start. “I had to build their cybersecurity department from the ground up,” she says. “I was basically the first person and the first employee for security here.”
“For the longest time, I was the only female in the room. But that’s improving, and it’s good to see that. Women provide such a great perspective.” — Lana Davenport
“Security for all companies is always a very important matter,” Davenport says. “It’s kind of like plumbing. When everything works, it’s great, but when we have a cold streak here in Memphis and a pipe bursts, then you know what a hassle your plumbing is. But our job here in security is also to educate our company how much we do in the background, but also [teach them cybersecurity] risks because the security department cannot do their job without all the employees being very security-minded.”
Fortunately, Davenport finds the educational and leadership side of her job just as fascinating as the technical. “I’m a people person,” she says. “I like to share my expertise. So anytime there is an opportunity where I think I can contribute, I try to do that.” That has meant speaking on panels and at conferences, visiting career days, mentoring, joining Women in Technology of Tennessee, and becoming president of the Memphis chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance.
One goal of all these efforts, Davenport says, is to inspire more women to pursue careers in cybersecurity. “For the longest time, I was the only female in the room,” she says. “But that’s improving, and it’s good to see that. Women provide such a great perspective. It’s a different perspective and diversity in the field. … To me, it’s like if I could do it, you can do it.” — Abigail Morici
photograph courtesy joel tracy
Joel Tracy
Crisis Leadership
Ordering a package these days is incredibly simple from a consumer standpoint. Just a few clicks, and a bottle of wine, your favorite books, or whatever you like arrives at the front door, ready to be opened and enjoyed, in just a few days. But that box often undergoes an incredible journey, sometimes traveling from the other side of the world as a passenger on planes, ships, trains, and trucks before it reaches its final destination.
There are lots of places that package can get delayed, or even lost during transit, so making sure transportation is as smooth as possible is the main focus for IMC Companies CIO Joel Tracy. IMC Companies is the largest intermodal drayage company in the United States and deals exclusively with international shipments.
“We act as a logistics solutions provider,” says Tracy, “acting as a transaction coordination and consolidator between ship lines, the railroads, the ports, brokers, chassis providers. We’re handling the movement of a container and we’re consolidating all of that into a single service.”
But that complex web of transportation and transactions became even more complicated when the Covid-19 pandemic slowed the logistics industry to a crawl. With many international shipping lanes clogged, Tracy had to find a way to get that process back to normal. The solution was to create new technology that would streamline the entire process and save clients plenty of money along the way.
“The last three years have been a real testing ground of people putting aside how it’s been done in the past and thinking outside of the box.” — Joel Tracy
“It was well documented that ships and trucks were stuck in really long lines as they waited for their specific containers,” says Tracy. “And when it was so congested during the pandemic, that just made it impossible to move things along.”
His company led the development of SmartStacks — technology that enabled truck drivers to pick up the first available container, rather than wait hours for their specific assignment. “It’s similar to a classic peel pile, where they unload containers into a stack for just one customer,” he says. “But with SmartStacks, we can have a single pile serving multiple customers at once. Drivers can pull up, enter the cargo number of the container they pick up, and have all the information about where they need to deliver it right off the bat.”
Not only does SmartStacks improve efficiency, but it also helps avoid pesky demurrage fees that are incurred when a container sits at a port for too long. And that incorporation of new technology extends to all facets of IMC’s services now, whether it’s communication with clients, constant tracking of freight shipments via geo-coordinates, or simply providing a foundation to navigate future crises.
“The last three years have been a real testing ground of people putting aside how it’s been done in the past and thinking outside of the box,” says Tracy. “We’re mixing tried-and-true methods coupled with technology to come up with new solutions to a crisis that really could have derailed our entire industry. And that’s allowed us to flourish and improve beyond pre-pandemic, and continue to deliver cargo to and from major ports and railways in the United States.” — Samuel X. Cicci
photograph courtesy cashundra jefferson
Cashundra Jefferson
Technology Educator of the Year
As a kid, Cashundra Jefferson was fascinated with technology. But she also looked up to the teachers that had stoked that passion during her time at Trezevant High School and, later, at Christian Brothers University. But rather than pick just one of those career paths, she thought she may as well merge the two.
As senior manager of academic strategy and special projects for Memphis Shelby County Schools, Jefferson has worked to expand the overall technology curriculum for students and prepare them for future careers in their chosen fields. In 2021, she helped revamp the system’s College, Career & Technical Education curriculum into the Tech Xpert program with a focus on four pillars: coding & stem, instructional technology, information technology, and industry certification. “It’s a really comprehensive program about building that foundational knowledge,” says Jefferson, “so that when students eventually graduate, they’ll be prepared to use these skills in college or trade schools.”
The Tech Xpert program is currently in 20 schools. At each school, students gain hands-on experience by running a Tech Xpert help desk. If one of their classmates is having trouble with a device, they’ll bring it to the help desk, where a student will log a support ticket and analyze the issue. If it’s something they can fix, they’ll do it, otherwise they can refer it to a professional. “We want them to really be hands-on with these devices, and have the time to really study them,” adds Jefferson.
“Technology is changing rapidly. We work hard to stay on top of that, and we want students to continue being on the forefront of that as well, and to enjoy it along the way.” — Cashundra Jefferson
But Jefferson’s enthusiasm isn’t just confined to the classroom. Last year, she launched the I AM THE FUTURE Tech Xplosion at the Agricenter, a conference that invited more than 1,000 Shelby County students from 37 middle schools to learn about emerging trends in technology. “That’s the biggest event I’ve thrown,” says Jefferson. “There are always conferences and seminars for teachers to attend, but we wanted to do something for the kids.” Students were able to interact with vendors and professionals in an interactive manner, working with circuitry, playing with robots, and getting a close look at AI and virtual-reality programs. “Lots of local companies came out to show that this technology can be applied in so many different spaces: engineering, agriculture, you name it. And to show these kids there is a real future for them in these industries.”
The additional tech programming continues to impress. More than 40 local tech companies and vendors have set up school visits to offer technology demos and hands-on learning. Jefferson has also spearheaded a series of one-day camps called Get Ready, Let’s Code, which invites community partners to assist students with anything from app development, to video game design, to robotics.
Just last year, Jefferson took 92 MSCS students to the Curiosity Innovation Lab in Atlanta to study current advancements in 3D printing, virtual reality, and drone technology, among many others. For her part, Jefferson plans to incorporate some of those new trends like AI and 3D printing into the MSCS curriculum. “Technology is changing rapidly,” says Jefferson. “We work hard to stay on top of that, and we want students to continue being on the forefront of that as well, and to enjoy it along the way.” — Samuel X. Cicci
photograph courtesy shelby county government
Sandra Perry
CIO / IT Leader — Public
A smooth government operation benefits all constituents. Making sure that all systems are “go” is a rigorous and methodical process, especially when working under the auspices of the dreaded “government red tape,” but that’s never fazed Shelby County CIO Sandra Perry.
The information technology veteran is a Memphis native, having graduated from Orange Mound’s Melrose High School before collecting a bachelor’s degree in engineering technology-computer systems from the University of Memphis and a master’s degree in information technology management from Western Governors University. Perry stuck close to her roots, amassing more than two decades of experience in IT Services for Shelby County Government.
Her leadership and body of work paid off. Perry made local history in 2021 when Mayor Lee Harris made her the first Black woman to hold the office of chief information officer, lauding her acumen when leading the IT Services Division “amid the unparalleled challenge of keeping our divisions and elected officials connected throughout the pandemic. Her leadership has helped us innovate and better serve our community during this difficult time.”
And if there was a difficult time to get the county’s technological house in order, it was during the Covid pandemic, when a shift to remote work for government operations could have proved catastrophic. Adjusting from IT Services’ traditional in-person work to a digital environment required much more than just setting up computers at home for each employee.
Perry and her team have worked to modernize operations over the last several years, enabling many Shelby County Government services to be performed online in a secure fashion — a convenient alternative to always having to conduct government business in person.
The department works closely with almost 50 organizations within Shelby County Government, and much of that work is focused on providing a reliable infrastructure, providing a stable framework to perform daily operations, and handling numerous financial transactions. They’re all services that require a level of security and confidentiality, especially when factoring in financials, or say, a Shelby County patient’s medical records. That became a complex issue to address when employees began using their own devices for remote work.
But Perry and her team have worked to modernize operations over the last several years, enabling many Shelby County Government services to be performed online in a secure fashion — a convenient alternative to always having to conduct government business in person.
There have been other advancements under her purview. In 2022, Shelby County IT Services garnered a trendsetter award from Accela Inc. — a software firm that recognizes innovative technology solutions from government agencies and leaders — for the Develop901 Project Locator, an interactive map of development activity around Shelby County, which displays the status of anything from building permits to zoning approvals for up to six months.
And last year, the Shelby County East Data Center — one of two centers that provide most of the county government’s technological horsepower — became one of two buildings to be powered by solar arrays, making it a net-zero-energy building, both saving the county some money and improving its climate footprint. — Samuel X. Cicci
photograph courtesy fedex
Robert B. Carter
Legacy Award
Rob Carter’s standing as one of the industry’s top players is reflected by a headline in Business Insider magazine that referred to him as “the Beyoncé of CIOs.”
That’s because you won’t find many people who understand systems better than Robert B. (Rob) Carter. He’s executive vice president of FedEx Information Services and chief information officer of FedEx Corporation and has been with the company since 1993. He’s a member of the company’s six-person Executive Committee, which plans and executes strategic business activities. Carter also serves as co-president and co-CEO of FedEx Services, the shared service organization responsible for sales, marketing, information technology, and customer service.
With more than 40 years of systems development and implementation experience, he is responsible for setting the technology direction of FedEx’s applications, infrastructure, and networks that provide support for FedEx product offerings.
Carter’s approach involves looking ahead to what is possible, and then making it a reality. He spoke during the “Inspired Execution” podcast series hosted by DataStax Chairman and CEO Chet Kapoor. Carter said, “We have significant repositories of data. And now what we’re doing is using this next-generation technology to activate that data in a more real way and try to provide insights to the world and to customers that we think will be quite valuable.”
His role in analyzing and implementing effective tech strategies has made him a global icon in the rapidly changing field, and he is often contacted for media interviews and to give presentations to professional organizations.
“We got slingshotted into 2023. This e-commerce explosion that we saw coming and were preparing for came right up-close and personal, and frankly you can’t fake being prepared for that.” — Rob Carter
As an example of his keen understanding of the tech industry, Carter was quick to fathom the impact of Covid-19 and how a business can best confront unexpected crises. He spoke to Information Week about how FedEx responded to the global earthquake that was the pandemic: “Culturally, there have been some great surprises. The effectiveness of these [collaborative] tools has been incredible. Not just because we’re able to [work together], but because it’s been so effective. Our team feels like we’ve been communicating really well throughout this. [The technology] is letting us do things that frankly we weren’t doing before the pandemic struck.”
As he further told the publication: “We got slingshotted into 2023. This e-commerce explosion that we saw coming and were preparing for came right up-close and personal, and frankly you can’t fake being prepared for that.”
Carter earned his bachelor’s degree in computer and information science from the University of Florida and his master’s degree from the University of South Florida. Beyond his professional achievements, he also is devoted to education and philanthropy.
He has been awarded many industry accolades, including, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune Magazine’s Executive Dream Team, Forbes Magazine CIO Innovation Award, Information Week’s Chief of the Year Award, and he is a charter inductee of CIO Magazine’s CIO Hall of Fame.
Carter also serves on the board of directors of New York Life. — Jon W. Sparks
