Despite the lack of snow, he found his niche in computers and now works for a world-class technology consulting firm, CapTech Ventures. A computer science major, he was president of the computer science club and active in the Sigma Chi fraternity as an undergraduate at the University.
After spending several years working at Anderson Consulting in Washington, DC, McQueen returned to Richmond and soon began the MBA program at the Robins School. He finished his MBA in 1998 and joined two former colleagues from Anderson Consulting who had just formed CapTech.
McQueen led CapTech’s initiative to build a solid employee training and career development program. “One of our company values is to instill trust with our clients,” he states. With CapTech’s rapid growth, they were concerned about consistency. He set out to structure a curriculum for employees to learn a core set of skills. After a few unsuccessful attempts at training employees in-house, McQueen turned to the Management Institute, the executive education division of the Robins School.
Together, they created CapTech University. They fashioned the course after existing curriculum. Its four modules cover consulting 101, effective communication, business writing and “requirements analysis,” a standard CapTech methodology used to elicit each client’s detailed requirements for a project.
All CapTech employees are required to attend a session, held several times a year at the Management Institute and jointly taught by Robins School faculty and CapTech management. McQueen explains that this year’s class was asked to complete a project in the style of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.” “It’s a fun, but intense competition, designed to be a learning experience to tie together the four class components.”
As a principal at CapTech, McQueen’s responsibilities include business development, focusing on building relationships, bringing in new clients and managing existing work. The company hopes to expand their markets in Washington, DC and Charlotte by opening offices there.
A winner of numerous industry honors, CapTech expects revenues of $24 million in 2006, McQueen says. They compete with big name firms such as IBM, Deloitte and Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting).
While his company enjoys good fortune, McQueen and his wife Lorraine suffer a hardship in their lives. Their seven-year-old son Sean suffers from a rare genetic disorder called Fanconi Anemia (FA). “Typically, life expectancy is 18 years old,” he explains.
He serves on the board of the FA Research Foundation based in Oregon. Locally, a number of University of Richmond alumni comprise the Friends for Sean Committee, including Kristi Canaan, Virginia and Tony Franco, Sharon and Scott Johnson, Molly McAlleer, Eileen and Bill Pilc, Drew Roever, Pam Watson, and John Willett.
They organize an annual gala and silent auction to raise money to support FA research. In the past five to six years, McQueen estimates they have raised close to $500,000. “There are dramatically better options than five years ago for treatment of FA,” observes McQueen. As if his life is not full enough, McQueen is also incoming president in 2007 of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Richmond, having served on the board the past several years.
In order to compete with the IBMs of the world, CapTech must recruit high-quality employees. One of McQueen’s recruiting initiatives is to entice employees with their work culture – one that embraces a balanced life for all employees. Considering all the demands placed on his life, McQueen makes a good role model.
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