You might say that the arc of the career of Michael
A. Goff has been non-traditional. You might even say
it’s been a bit of an anomaly. Consider this: without
having traversed one of the traditional academic paths
into the upper echelons of the business executive ranks,
Michael is today a consultant and educator to CIOs on
how to best align technology with business problems to
strategically put into effect the right solutions.
Consider this also: Michael built a world-class IT
organization at T. Rowe Price in less than two years.
The major mutual fund group gladly kept him on as CIO, a
position he held for 10 years before moving on to a
start-up consulting firm as Managing Partner. Prior to
Michael’s arrival at T. Rowe Price, the average tenure
for such a role was 20 months.
A poet once said that we are each a small storm. To
extend the metaphor, if Mr. Goff is a storm, he has long
been a spiral wrapped around a distinct calm eye. Early
on, he had the collaborative and ‘total picture’
instincts of a business leader and the wherewithal to
recognize and secure opportunities. After completing 60
hours in the business degree program at Ottawa
University in Kansas, he propelled himself into the
business world. By the time he was 22 years old he was
working 60 to 70 hours a week running the Western
Regional Data Center, a major data center for Associated
Dry Goods in Los Angeles, California. By the time he was
30 years old, he was making well over six figures in
salary. Michael never went back to school to complete
his degree for the simple reason — he was too busy being
successful.
To complement his expanding business management
perspective, Michael exercised his strong bent for
technology. With expertise previously gained from a
certificate program in Application Programming and
Systems Engineering along with the technically oriented
experience at the Western Regional Data Center, Michael
evolved into a ‘storm’ that gathered strength and moved
in purposeful direction. He was a founding member of
Arthur Young & Company’s National Advanced Technology
Application Group. In 1987 DST Systems Inc. in Kansas
City, Missouri, selected him as Vice President in charge
of the Advanced Technology Group. Michael’s success
skyrocketed. He grew DST’s net revenues by more than
$100 million and cemented the company’s $800 million
core business by developing the Automated Work
Distributor (AWD), an application that replaced the
manual and paper intensive systems. His application
quickly gained traction and resulted in sales and
installation throughout the world.
From DST, Michael was recruited by T. Rowe Price (TRP)
to transform their IT. He spent the first nine months at
TRP fixing the basic infrastructure. Then with
fast-forwarded managerial and team-building dexterity,
he created world-class systems at a fraction of the cost
that was standard for TRP’s competitors. Within his
first two years at TRP, Michael had hired over 200
quality people and consolidated 300 existing staff
members from other areas of the business to successfully
create a highly functional $280 million budgeted
organization. The IT Group would eventually grow under
Michael to consist of 1,100 staff members, which
represented 21% of the firm’s total headcount.
Michael’s energy and vision at T. Rowe Price showed
no signs of dissipating. He proceeded to create T. Rowe
Price Investment Technologies (TRPIT), a professional
services firm consisting of senior analysts and project
managers who advanced technology strategies and tactical
plans by engaging in partnership with specific business
units across the company. Michael appointed ‘User
Champions’ to serve as technical experts within each
business unit. He launched executive ‘boot camps’ to
train management in the aggressive use of technology.
This exemplified his very open management style — an
inclusive, no boundaries approach that exposed his
direct reports not only to his elevated mentorship, but
also to the C-level suite of executives and to the
Board. He encouraged their access to these senior
leaders to expand their understanding of departmental
interconnectedness. As a result, many of Michael’s
direct reports have progressed to be CIOs and COOs at
other firms.
As Managing Partner at Peachwood Partners in Sparks,
Maryland, Michael’s uniquely developed 360 degree
perspective provides corporate executives in Operations
and at the various C-levels with valuable strategic and
tactical direction for their IT needs. Michael’s 360
degree perspective has evolved through his career as a
result of his inclusive management and learning style,
which is not inhibited by boundaries and departmental
lines. His perspective has also been bolstered by his
direct experience managing P&L, servicing customers, and
by working in highly regulatory environments. His
foresight and deft negotiation skills and persuasiveness
allow him to leverage company situations to gain
competitive positioning and financial advantage. Michael
has repeatedly displayed the ability to quickly divine
or develop a vision even in situations where there is
staff discomfort and rudderless strategies that are only
vaguely defined. Michael can, in short order, build a
shared sense of purpose — an esprit d’ corps around a
mission as opposed to a crisis. He ignites momentum and
sustains it.
Mr. Goff has spent much time during the last 10 years
working on various school boards. His focus issue has
been to remove the stigma associated with kids who learn
differently, and to foster environments that remove that
stigma. Most recently, Michael has been a member of the
Board of Trustees for the Ruxton County (MD) Schools,
where he has served as Chair of Development in 2008, and
as the Marketing/Communications Chair in 2006. During
his tenure, a new middle school facility was built with
100% of the money obtained from the Board’s successful
capital campaign. Michael has four children and he and
his wife, Laurie, reside in Maryland. Michael has been a
long-time member of the Porsche Club of America and the
BMW Club. He is a collector of guitars and a self-taught
guitar player and musician. As well, he is a budding
songwriter, albeit, a frustrated one.
