The “Stakeholder Spotlight” is an occasional series of posts highlighting people who are helping to advance Learning Life’s work. Our latest post in this series features Trey Webb, the CEO of two tech companies in the Washington D.C. area which support Learning Life community events. For many ways you can support Learning Life, click here.
When I was about 12 years old, my dad bought a computer for work. Around this time, I developed a deep love for video games and discovered I could program my own games using his computer. Unfortunately, I had limited resources and didn’t really know anyone else with experience in this area. Fast forward a few years to my freshman year of high school in Germany (my father was in the US military), I convinced my teachers to allow me into a BASIC programming class despite the fact that I didn’t have the math prerequisites. It was an amazing class because it was self-paced, which was good for me because I tend to learn things very quickly and often get bored if not sufficiently challenged. It was a year-long class, but I was able to finish it in a quarter. Fortunately, the teacher offered to teach me another language, and I got to learn Pascal. We then moved back to the US halfway through my sophomore year, and I took every computer class I could at my high school and subsequently transferred to another high school in the next town because it had a computer class I couldn’t get anywhere else.
Upon completing high school, I applied and got into Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but my grades were so poor I was asked to leave after the first semester. When I got back home, my mother refused to let me stay home during the workday, so I found work, which led to a company that built and configured computers, I bounced around from there spending most of my time at Bell Atlantic which became Verizon and then ultimately to Allied Telecom. Twelve years later, after working with and learning from a lot of smart people, I was given the chance to lead the company. The bottom line is my early love for video games led to a lifelong passion for technology, especially computer science, that still drives me today.
Please tell us more about Allied Telecom and Amplify.
Allied is a full-service internet and data services provider. Our expertise is in delivering Internet connectivity, data services, and cloud connectivity solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. Amplify provides managed IT solutions, including cybersecurity, technical support, and managed networking. One of the things that I’ve always loved about Allied, and try to instill in Amplify, is a passion for excellent client service. We genuinely want to help our clients with the technical side of things so they can focus on their mission. As we say at Amplify, we want to help them “stop worrying about technology, and get back to business.”
Why did you decide to support Learning Life?
I’m always looking for opportunities to help others, and when I met Learning Life’s founder, Paul Lachelier, at a condo association party, I was immediately drawn to Paul’s passion for democracy. I have seen a lot of families and friendships strained over politics, and think we can do better. Learning Life is doing better for democracy by encouraging civil discourse. As I’ve heard and like to say, “criticize ideas, not people.” So I felt like this was the kind of initiative I could genuinely support.
What is your current occupation?