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Hall
of Distinction |
Updated:
04/05/08
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Davis L. Marksbury
If entrepreneurship and cutting-edge ideas can be described in
racing
terms, Davis Marksbury moved to
the
lead quickly, and has stayed there.
As
an incoming University of Kentucky freshman, he was inspired during
an orientation session to make engineering his field of study.
"They showed a list of potential areas of study and how much one
could earn upon graduation," he recalled. "Engineering was
at the top of the list." Having made his decision, Mr. Marksbury
pursued his academic goal with energy and discipline, and produced outstanding
results. He is a 1980 magna cum laude graduate of the University of
Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering.
Mr. Marksbury began his career with Shell Oil Company in Houston, doing
computer modeling for off shore oil platforms. During that time, he
was appointed to a management task force that was assigned to determine
how to capitalize on the new Xerox electronic printers that were coming
to market. Intrigued by the technology, Mr. Marksbury and the partners
of PDR Engineers started PDR Information Services, a consulting company
that focused on helping Fortune 500 companies build information management
strategies. Those who knew Mr. Marksbury could not have been surprised
at the move.
"I've
always been entrepreneurial," he says, and since the age of 26,
he has launched three successful companies to address complex technology
challenges in the document publishing industry.
In
1992 Mr. Marksbury and Dan Kloiber started a spinoff company, PDR Advanced
Technology, which developed StreamWeaver, a product that allows large
enterprises to re-engineer their high-volume transaction document applications
such as invoices and statements. StreamWeaver is now the world's most
commonly used print stream processing software solution. PDR Advanced
Technology was sold to Pitney Bowes in 1996. PDR Information Services
was sold to Interleaf, now Broadvision, in 1998. The partners then tried
to identify, in Mr. Marksbury's words, "the next big thing."
In
the 1990s, as businesses struggled with the concept of customer relationship
management (CRM) on the Internet, Mr. Marksbury and Mr. Kloiber, benefiting
from the perspective provided by the PDR companies' success, had their
idea: Develop products that would allow users to practice effective
CRM through multiple channels and all customer touchpoints, not just
the Internet. Their new company, Exstream, founded in 1998, began a
period of phenomenal growth after Dialogue® software was made available
to customers beginning in January of 2000.
"The
flexibility of Dialogue allows them to deliver faster and cheaper with
one solution versus many tools to deliver different kinds of applications."
Mr. Marksbury said in an interview with Electronic Publishing magazine.
Put
mildly, Dialogue was and is a tremendous success. It fueled a period
of growth in which the company went from no revenue in 1998 and 1999
to more than $90 million by 2008. Today, Exstream provides enterprise
software solutions for more than 400 large enterprises around the world
to streamline document creation processes and produce higher quality
communications. Customers are found in a wide variety of industries.
Exstream, headquartered in Lexington
, now has about
300 employees and is ranked among the world's leading technology companies.
Earlier
this year, HP announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire
Exstream Software.
Regarding
entrepreneurship, Mr. Marksbury says, "You will be successful if
your idea is better, if you execute well by focusing on customer and
employee satisfaction, and if you outwork your competition."
He
is also a believer in assembling a strong team.
"The
key to execution is to surround yourself with an outstanding management
team, where each member is excellent -- and stronger than you -- in
their respective field."
"Davis
is extremely
efficient in everything he does, from writing software code to business
and financial analysis," says Mr. Kloiber. "We formed a great
partnership because we're both analytical, and we talk through issues
together to get a consensus. And we're still great friends."
Mr.
Marksbury says entrepreneurs should plan early for rapid growth and
implement the types of systems, processes, and infrastructure a company
will need when it is much larger.
The
challenge is ongoing. Mr. Marksbury believes even the most successful
entrepreneurs should expect to reinvent themselves every few years.
"Leapfrog yourself," he says, "before your competitors
do it."
Mr.
Marksbury's entrepreneurial success is widely recognized and honored.
He was a regional winner of
the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and has twice
been a finalist for Inc. magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year
Award.
Mr.
Marksbury and his wife, Beverly, reside in Lexington
. They have
a son, Lee, and a daughter, Logan.
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