If you want something done well, you have to do it yourself, right? Well...maybe. Sometimes, you probably want to call the experts, but when you, yourself, are the expert, then yes, it’s time to get to work.
Bob Colonna, the Founder, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Innovative Systems, is a digital design expert. That’s why he was the principal designer of the data cleansing, matching, and marketing software for the company he started in 1968. Yes, 1968, and he’s been there the whole time, through all the technological changes in the interim—everything from the moon landing to the rise of AI. When you’re good at something, you’re good.
Colonna attributes his fluency with programming languages to his fluency with spoken languages, particularly French and German, which he learned in language schools during his time in the Army. This linguistic background—combined with his degrees in mathematics and management science—provided him with the training to develop Innovative Systems’ leading-edge technology.
Under Colonna’s leadership, Innovative Systems has expanded its reach to over 65 countries around the world, with offices in Pittsburgh, where the company is based, and in São Paolo, Mexico City, Dubai, and London, with clients in 66 countries. Among those clients are the American Red Cross, CVS, US Steel, and Verizon.
But Colonna’s work is not limited to Innovative Systems: an avid fundraiser and a 1962 graduate of Lehigh University, his largesse has helped the school’s lacrosse program, of which he was once a member. One of his favorite moments was when his team beat rival Lafayette by the humiliating score of 26-0, proving what we already knew: he doesn’t stop just when things are getting good. He keeps going and going.
