 Shawnee Huckstep
CEO/President Shawnee Huckstep is the CEO and co-founder of TechWise, a Professional Services Company headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO. Beginning in 1994 as a two-person organization with her husband Arran, specializing in custom database development, TechWise is now a strong, 8(a) Woman-Owned, Small Disadvantaged Business with proven Program Management capability and robust infrastructure support for successful execution. TechWise is headquartered in Colorado Springs and operates in seven states: Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, and Virginia. Shawnee’s leadership through the downturn in the technology training industry was paramount in the continued success of TechWise. While other companies were fighting for monies to keep their technology personnel and had zero budgets for training, Shawnee found ways to leverage the firm’s excellent past performance in technology training and consulting into new growth areas of Military Training and Exercise Support. She has been able to provide innovation to many Military Training Events by incorporating efficient ways to use technology throughout the training/exercises and helping Customers evaluate the return on investment for the training. She has positioned her Company as the Best Professional Service Company to have on the team to get the Soldiers trained. Productive training for Soldiers means fewer Soldiers’ lives lost. TechWise brings the best of world-class technical and professional services to Government and Commercial Clients, training, growing, and deploying a skilled, knowledge-based workforce committed to effective partnering with, and supporting, Teammates, Clients, and Community, bringing positive change and improvement to everything we touch. As CEO of TechWise, Shawnee is a respected Mentor, Visionary, and Leader, ultimately responsible for the decisions that drive the TechWise Business. Her key external role is building and managing relationships with Public, Academic, Business, and Government Leaders. In 2002, Shawnee was honored by the Colorado Springs Business Journal as one of the Top 25 Dynamic Women in Business. Shawnee received the 2008 Small Business Person of the Year award from the Colorado Small Business Administration. “Shawnee Huckstep is a perfect example of the ingenuity and innovation that small firms possess here in Colorado and the Nation” said Elton Ringsak, SBA’s Region VIII Administrator. Shawnee was also selected for The Inspiring AmbITion (emphasis on the IT) project which is a collaboration of four Colorado Universities organized through the Colorado Coalition for Gender and Information Technology (CCGIT). She was featured in the DVD profiling a diverse sample of Denver-area IT professionals, used for recruiting women and minorities into computing/IT programs. Shawnee strives to balance a passion for individual success with a deep appreciation for the diverse talents, viewpoints, and contributions of others. Her father, a physicist and esteemed mentor, taught Shawnee the essential nature of listening, asking intelligent questions, and staying curious in the deepest recesses of one's heart. Shawnee often has ‘strong feelings’ and intuitive insights that drive her to honor the ultimate spirit of the TechWise Vision: one of Respect, Honesty, and Responsibility to the larger Community. The basic TechWise principles rest on Leadership, Values, and Innovation. A contributor to Descendents of the Freedman, Shawnee is of Black and Native American heritage and has always been an enthusiastic advocate for Native Rights and Culture. The TechWise logo is based on Native American symbolism to demonstrate her pride in her family's traditions and values. Shawnee recognizes the significant challenges facing Women and Minority Leaders in such intensely competitive industries that led her to become a founding member of the Colorado Springs chapter of Women in Defense as the Fundraising Chair. She is also Vice President of Publicity for the National Defense Industry Association and works to help bring the needs of Defense to the local industry so that innovation and solutions can be implemented. Shawnee financially supported the Chamber of Commerce in 2007 in pursuit of establishing a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) in Colorado, which will further help Small Business in the Colorado Community. Shawnee supports the Air Force Association (AFA), Association of the United States Army (AUSA), the Armed Forces YMCA, and the Military Affairs Council. She is also a generous and insightful mentor with a unique ability to provide sage advice balanced with precise questions that help awaken the genius within others. Shawnee continues her involvement in the Community and in 2010 was asked to join the Chamber Board of Directors, giving her the opportunity to contribute guidance and knowledge to other Small Businesses and Professionals. On the personal side, Shawnee volunteers time each week to spend it with children. She is a personal supporter of the Community Partnership for Child Development which prepares children in El Paso County for success in school life by providing comprehensive early childhood services. She is a recent graduate from the 2009 Leadership Pikes Peak program which helps connect Community Leaders with the local Community.
 Arran Huckstep
Chief Technology Officer/ Co-Founder Arran Huckstep's love of learning has been the basis for everything he does. He has been a voracious reader his whole life, often reading a book a day when he was younger. His astonishing test scores led to two academic scholarships, a full National Merit Scholarship along with an full Air Force ROTC scholarship to Baylor University.
While attending college full time, he and his wife started a consulting company automating small retail business with Point-Of-Sale and Inventory Control Software. Before he left Waco, he had created end-to-end custom software solutions for six businesses.
Arran graduated with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Baylor University in 1995 and was then commissioned into the United States Air Force as a Communications officer. After a year he asked his commanding officer for permission to begin moon-lighting again, and began supporting commercial customers in the Colorado Springs area with custom software solutions. He also obtained vendor certifications such as a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, and Cisco Certified Network Associate. When he separated from the Air Force in 1999, he dedicated himself full time to his growing consulting business. Within six months he won a large contract with a Fortune 500 company- Philips Electronics- to create a global supply chain management system for the North American Peripherals Division. This contract would prove to be the catalyst that allowed Huckstep Consulting to gain the past performance and financial resources to become TechWise.
As the business grew, adding employees and gaining financial stability, Arran knew that he needed a strong business mind to help the company achieve it's potential. In 2001 he was able to convince his wife, Shawnee Huckstep, who had been instrumental all along, to leave her job and become CEO of the company, which was rechristened TechWise. Arran has been the Chief Technical officer for TechWise ever since and is best known for his dedication to his customers in the Technology Consulting Branch of TechWise, he still offers a few of our early customers his personal 24/7 support. He has established relationships and managed projects supporting medical complexes, IT firms, government contractors, non-profits, government entities, accounting firms and a myriad of small businesses.
Arran's expertise has also provided TechWise with the advantage of an enterprise class IT infrastructure comparable to much larger businesses.
Arran is currently pursuing graduate coursework to support a PhD in Molecular Biology and working to establish a non-profit supporting medical research.
Arran volunteers with Junior Achievement, the YMCA and the local school reading programs. He still enjoys reading and spending time with his family, playing chess, and basketball. |
