Alumni Feature: John Weber

by Karen Klein | July 10, 2017 4:31 PM

John Weber came to CSU to be a member of the track team, study engineering and participate in ROTC. Although his time running track was short, the welcoming environment and his newfound friends kept him at the University. He also became very involved with a fraternity on campus, Sigma Nu. As a member, he created lifelong friendships with his brothers and continues to keep in touch with them today.

Shortly after starting college, he changed his major from engineering to business to pursue a concentration in strategic management. One major difference between the college experience that Weber remembers as compared with the campus today, was having many of his business classes in the Clark Building and the buildings surrounding The Oval.

 

Senior year, he applied and was hired as a communications intern for the Poudre School District. There, he quickly became the public relations guru for the school district.  He anchored and recorded a weekly radio show, wrote articles for the school newsletter, and accomplished various other tasks. The internship drastically improved his writing skills and helped him overcome a fear of public speaking.

He worked in various other positions throughout his college career. Many of his work opportunities came directly from the College of Business including his internship. Weber worked for Professor Edward Prill his junior year, who taught real estate.

Only a few credits short of a minor, he planned to get into commercial land development after graduation, but economic conditions at the time made it difficult for him to pursue that career path.

Upon graduation, Weber joined EDS, a large systems integrator based in Dallas, Texas. He was hired into their Systems Engineering Development Program. Throughout the three-year program, participants of various backgrounds had the opportunity to learn and practice technical and customer-facing skills. Utilizing his business degree from CSU, Weber built a foundation for a career-long focus on technology leadership.

Weber later left EDS to join a smaller company, MetaSolv Software, which was focused on telecommunications. During his time, he experienced the company’s rapid growth,  an IPO and the eventual sale of the company to Oracle.

Weber, along with a few other team members, eventually left MetaSolv and went to Calpont Corporation, a startup that developed and released the open-source analytical database engine InfiniDB. Weber joined as the head of technology, and during his time at Calpont, he expanded his role beyond a technology focus into leadership and management.

The skills he developed along his career path and within the College of Business prepared him for his current leadership role as CEO and CFO for LRS, a global provider of technology solutions. Weber applies the management principles he learned at CSU and along the way to his everyday technical and corporate experiences. LRS’s goals are currently focused on growing its customer base and international presence.

As an alumnus, Weber also maintains strong ties to the University, and even created a scholarship with his wife, Julie, for College of Business students.  The scholarship is geared toward out-of-state students who participate in club sports during their time at Colorado State University.  The Webers focused their scholarship in this way to help CSU meet its enrollment goals and target more out-of-state students.

Last Labor Day, Weber and his wife, visited entrepreneurship and human resources classes and shared their knowledge and expertise with students. Expressing how thrilled he is by the growth he has witnessed at the school Weber stated, “The time you spend in college makes an enormous impact on you. To continue adding to the quality education CSU provides not only adds value to my own degree, it also helps the students.”

Source URL: https://source.colostate.edu/alumni-feature-john-weber/

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