An Interview With Dan Oliver… Senior IT Consultant & Co-Founder at GO Concepts Inc
How Are You Involved at GO Concepts and In The Broader Community?
“In 1997, at the young age of 17, I joined John Gambill, Jr., to form GO Concepts. At that time, we started as an Internet Service Provider and website design firm with helpdesk services and IT consulting to get people on the old 56K dial-up and then DSL.
I was a student at Ohio State University during that time, juggling both my education and business responsibilities. It was a busy time for me. I ended up leaving school to work at GO Concepts full time, hoping to return after a time to finish my degree in electrical engineering, but I never made it back to college because GO Concepts kept me very busy!
Here it is 22 years later and GO Concepts has gone through many evolutions. The best was just about six years ago, in 2013, when we started focusing on organizations and businesses serving those with developmental disabilities. We provide IT services to County Boards, private providers, and agencies here in Ohio.
Now in 2019, helping DD organizations with their IT needs is 100% of our focus. We became involved with DD-related organizations because we’re all passionate about what they do. Plus, we work with companies that do business with these county government organizations to provide IT expertise for them as well. As a result, we have some high-level IT consultants here at GO Concepts.
My role at GO Concepts started in computer networking. However, today I’m a full-fledged IT Consultant, advising our customers on a wide range of computer issues including HIPAA compliance, and business and organizational topics.
Before GO Concepts, in the mid-’90s, I worked in the data processing department in the Warren County offices, running IT operations for the County. So, my original experience in the IT world was from a government perspective. This gave me the background I needed for working with the Developmental Disabilities Boards today.
A little bit about my busy family…
My wife Kinga is a Professor of Mathematics at Sinclair College. Kinga is from Poland and is a naturalized citizen of the US. She was an au pair when she and I first met.
Today we have two daughters, ages 13 and 11. They are both in a high-level of gymnastics (Level 9 and Level 7 currently). They practice between 16 and 20 hours a week, even during the school year. They compete nationally, so we are very busy taking them around the country to their competitions. It’s good training for the girls in many ways. They’ve developed a lot of discipline as a result; and have learned to get up and go again even when they fail and fall!
Kinga participates in a lot of activities at Sinclair College and in the community college math world. The Association of Two-Year Colleges in the US holds national competitions twice a year, and Kinga organizes and runs these competitions at Sinclair College for those competing in the area of math. She also hosts high school students with they come to visit the Engineering Department at the College.
Plus, Kinga is also involved in a group called STEM Women (Science Technology Engineering Math). The group holds workshops for high school students and Kinga presents in the areas of math and chemistry. This inspires young women to go into the field of science and technology. Kinga mentors a lot of new instructors. She also teaches math to future teachers to help them overcome their ‘aversion’ to it!
Let me brag even more about my wife. Kinga is a two-time winner of the “John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award” by The League for Innovation in the Community College. This is a high honor in the community college world.
Getting back to GO Concepts…
We sponsor a lot of events in the community. Ted at GO Concepts manages most of these. Some include:
- Run for Dreams 5k/10k – Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities
- Dye Hard 5k – Developmental Disabilities of Clark County
- SHIFT Music + Art + Mindsets – InsideOut Studio (Easterseals of Greater Cincinnati and Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities)
- LEAP – Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities
- TAC Annual Fishing Derby – The Abilities Connection (TAC Industries)
However, I do volunteer for the Springboro Community Schools on their Policy Committee. The school district serves about 6,000 children.
