Ugly Data hires new CEO
Written by Duane Ramsey | | news@toledofreepress.com
From left, Dan Miller, Chris Cook, Jack Sculfort and Amy Miller of Ugly Data.
Ugly Data, Inc., a growing information technology company based in Toledo, has named Jack Sculfort as CEO, said Amy Miller, co-founder and president of the company.
“It’s very good timing to bring Jack on board as we’re growing much faster than we anticipated,” Amy said. “We knew we needed a strong business person to complement our technological expertise.”
“It’s an exciting opportunity to join a company that is on the leading edge of technology and investment,” said Sculfort, who has spent his entire career managing business entities.
Sculfort previously served as chief operating officer and executive vice president of Dillin Corp. in Perrysburg. He founded Transaction Opportunities Inc., serving as an independent consultant advising companies on strategic transactions for 10 years before coming from Chicago to Toledo to work for Larry Dillin after Dillin Corp. purchased Transaction opportunities in 2002.
Amy and her husband Dan Miller also came from Chicago to Toledo when they founded Ugly Data in 2006. The couple had worked more than 20 years with Hewlett Packard in Chicago. She is originally from the Toledo area.
Ugly Data is a managed service provider that supplies dedicated and virtual servers for running applications, databases and other hosting requirements. The firm provides virtualized server hosting, backup services, disaster recovery and data archiving with MS Exchange and Sharepoint hosting.
Entering its fourth year in business, Ugly Data is 150 percent ahead of the company’s planned growth to date, Amy said. The firm gains five to six new clients per month, she said.
“Every company should have backup and know where it is stored. We can provide everything they need,” Amy said. “We’re an affordable and effective solution for companies to cut costs and that’s why we’ve grown as quickly as we have.”
“We’re at the right place at the right time with the right technology to continue that rate of growth,” Sculfort said. “The company has funded its own growth to date, but needs to strengthen its balance sheet to continue growing.”
Sculfort said every company should outsource its servers and manage capital to invest it in mission critical needs. Every business needs servers and we can help them do it more efficiently, while improving their data security, he said.
Ugly Data signed a new client this summer that anticipated needing a $40,000 capital investment in upgrades for new servers and software licenses. That cost did not include having the time or the expertise to do it, according to Dan, chief information officer.
“We were able to do it for considerably less and they pay us a monthly fee for continued service,” he said.
Ugly Data has hundreds of clients, including academic, governments, like cities, counties and townships, and small-to-medium businesses in Northwest Ohio across the country and one in France.
The company also hired Chris Cook as director of technical services to work closely with Dan and the firm’s clients. Cook previously worked for a defense contractor for the U.S. Navy after serving seven years in the Navy.
Cook returned to his hometown of Toledo from the Norfolk, Va. area for the position with Ugly Data. He is a graduate of St. John’s High School and attended UT before joining the Navy.
Ugly Data plans to hire three additional employees in the near future to serve the daily IT needs of its clients. The company is looking for people with experience in consulting for network accounts and administration of internal services, Amy said.
Ugly Data operates two data centers in the Toledo area, one on UT’s main campus and another with its offices on the medical campus. They are considering additional data centers in other locations, such as Bowling Green or Findlay to start and others possibly in Cleveland or Chicago, Amy said.
“We intend to expand the firm’s footprint beyond Northwest Ohio. We’re putting systems and structure in place to handle future growth,” Sculfort said.
For information, visit www.uglydata.com.
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