Bill Serva
It all started with a video game
It was Pac-Man, to be specific. I can remember playing for the first time and I was hooked. This was different than anything that I had ever experienced before. I wanted to know everything about the game. How did it work? Who invented it? How could I be involved in this amazing technology? I got my first computer shortly after that, and technology has been a passion ever since. But my path to a career in technology wasn't a straight line. Not even close.
People were the first stop
When I went to college at the University of Arizona, I started in Chemical Engineering. After the first Organic Chemistry lab where I broke $50 in equipment, I decided to do a 180. I switched my major to Psychology, got my degree, and spent the next five years working for the Division of Developmental Disabilities in Tucson, Arizona. I helped individuals and families connect with the services and support they needed to make their lives better. I got a couple of promotions, eventually becoming the manager of the training department, certifying people to work with individuals with developmental disabilities.
I loved that work. But I had a family to support and a salary at the State of Arizona wasn't cutting it. So I changed careers. A few times actually. A year at a clinical research facility. Then a job in the finance of a small software company called NovaNET that sold software to schools. My boss was the CFO, and he didn't like dealing with the office IT, so I volunteered to do it instead. The company grew, opened a second office, and I raised my hand to be the IT guy for the new location.
That's how I got into technology. No formal training. No computer science degree. Just curiosity, a willingness to figure things out, and the habit of raising my hand.
After getting laid off from that job, leaving another job to avoid a layoff, and then a layoff during the global financial crisis of 2008, I was out of work for four months. I decided to leave Tucson and head north to Phoenix where I got a job at Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona as the Senior Manager of IT Operations. That turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.
The Goodwill years
When I started at Goodwill, the IT Helpdesk consisted of a couple of people answering phones at random. Whoever picked it up first was the one that fixed your computer. Over the years, I built it into a fully functioning department with real structure, real processes, and real outcomes. I was eventually promoted to Vice President of Information Technology, leading a team of 30 people with a $9 million annual budget across almost 100 retail locations.
My promotion to VP came in a way I didn't exactly plan for. My predecessor left unexpectedly after a change in leadership at the very top of the organization. The head of HR came to me and said, "Hey Bill, do you want to lead the department?" I said yes. A couple of hours later, an email went out announcing that I was the new head of the IT department.
I kind of got promoted over email.
At my very first senior leadership meeting I said to the group, "I don't know what your experience has been in the past, but I'm new in this role and I'd like to start with a clean slate. If you've asked for something in before and we said no, ask again."
We had a history of saying no and I wanted to change that.
I set up individual meetings with every single member of the senior leadership team as well as every single member of the IT department. I asked each of them what was working, what wasn't, and what we could do better. I needed to develop relationships with each member of the senior leadership team to figure out what they needed, and each member of the IT team because I needed their help in getting the work done.
I also did something early on that shaped how I think about leadership: I sought out an executive coach. In my first meeting, I told her that I didn't know what I was doing. She told me to stop saying that. The organization had put their trust in me and I needed to start acting like it. She pushed me to be uncomfortable, to be vulnerable with the people around me, and develop the kinds of relationships that would actually move things forward. I've had a couple of executive coaches over the years. The best ones are the ones that push you.
Moon Valley
In April of 2022, I became the Chief Technology Officer at Moon Valley Nurseries, the largest box tree grower in North America. I've spent my time there modernizing the technology across the organization as it grew from 35 locations to over 50. I implemented an enterprise Point of Sale and Field Service solution to replace legacy and paper based systems, built an organizational data warehouse, and created an AI-powered self-service analytics platform that gives leadership realtime visibility into the business that they never had before. And guess what? I've also been able to mentor people on my team and see them do things that they didn't know that they were capable of.
Servalogy
I started Servalogy because I kept seeing the same gap. Mid-market organizations are making technology decisions every day without a strategic technology leader in the room. Not because they don't care. Often, they don't know what they are missing until something goes wrong. An ERP implementation takes too long, goes over budget, or just never gets finished. A security breach happens that could have easily been prevented with the right people or technology in place. A technology investment that doesn't deliver like the vendor promised it would.
I've been that strategic technology leader. I've owned the budget, led the team, managed the implementations, and lived with the results. There's a difference between someone who has watched these projects from the outside and someone who has directed them to completion. I'm the latter.
My goal with Servalogy is simple: to bring that experience to organizations that need it as a fractional CTO, a strategic advisor, or a guide through a specific technology challenge to help organizations get where they're trying to go.
Published work & speaking
I've written about the ERP selection process, digital transformation, and technology leadership as a Contributing CIO for The National CIO Review, a publication read by more than 50,000 technology executives. I've also appeared on the Status Go podcast by InterVision, the Business of Intuition podcast with Mission Facilitators International, and have been featured in panels alongside CIOs and CTOs from organizations across the country. I've also written about leadership, technology, and other stuff I've learned along the way at billserva.com.
Credentials
MBA, Technology Management - University of Phoenix
BA, Psychology & Religious Studies - University of Arizona
PMP - Project Management Professional
Agile Hybrid Project Pro
ITIL v3 Foundation
Let's Talk
If you're wrestling with a technology decision and you're not sure you have the right guidance in the room, I'd love to hear about it. No pitch, just an honest conversation about where you are, where you're trying to go, and how I can help.