National BDPA annually selects and awards the BDPA Epsilon Award to recognize and celebrate key contributions and accomplishments of its members. Nominations are accepted across five categories and they are evaluated by a team of National BDPA members in accordance with the descriptions below.
One of the categories is Outstanding Technical Contribution. This honor is reserved for individuals who have pioneered new or leveraged existing technology to solve a critical business or technical problem.
BDPA is pleased to announce that J. Daniel Thomas has won the 2013 Epsilon Award for Career Contribution. Darrel Thomas is an HP Fellow and member of the Enterprise Services (ES) Chief Technology Office, focusing on Strategic Pursuits and Cloud Computing Services Enablement. Thomas’ primary focus is the dual responsibility of collaborating with Enterprise Services portfolio, sales, solutioning, and account teams on applying service offerings to both sales/solutioning engagements, and in-flight client accounts. His additional responsibility is in the implementation of Cloud Computing services in ES for clients, focusing on HP’s cloud service offerings and the associated technology aspects – including Public, Private, Managed, and other cloud models. Key areas of concern are Cloud APIs (including OpenStack), automation, cloud service management, and cloud-to-traditional federation/orchestration.
Darrel Thomas is worthy of the Outstanding Technical Contribution award because he leveraged existing technology to solve critical business and technical problems for several HP clients. He is one for the few minority employees to achieve the level in Hewlett Packard. With over 300,000 employees globally, HP only has 54 HP Fellows. They are considered pioneers in their fields. HP Fellows and Senior Fellows set the standards for technical excellence and drive the direction of technology in their respective disciplines. They are not only exceptional technologists; they are futurists whose contributions shape both HP and our industry as a whole.
Individuals who seek to become Fellows are nominated by their management team and must be approved by business-unit and corporate review boards. Also, Fellows must meet a rigorous set of criteria in the following three areas:
- Continuity and impact of technical contributions
- Breadth and depth of knowledge
- Leadership
As a HP Fellow Thomas’ primary focus is the dual responsibility of collaborating with Enterprise Services portfolio, sales, solutioning, and account teams on applying service offerings to both sales/solutioning engagements, and in-flight client accounts. His additional responsibility is in the implementation of Cloud Computing services in ES for clients, focusing on HP’s cloud service offerings and the associated technology aspects – including Public, Private, Managed, and other cloud models.
Since beginning his career at Electronic Data Systems (EDS),
Thomas has held several roles with various responsibilities both before and after the company was purchased by HP. His more recent job experiences within the company have included chief technologist, consultant systems engineer and chief architect.
Previously,
Thomas worked as a chief technologist for Persona based out of Colorado. In this position, he was responsible for the Internet, intranet and extranet architecture of the PersonaVault™, Persona’s ASP Identity Management Service. He also negotiated the E-Business ITO contract with EDS.
Thomas currently has several patents both awarded and pending and holds relationships within and outside of company organizations and professional affiliations. He also holds four Guinness World Records for the FIFA World Cup France 1998 website. Darrel Thomas completed his computer science degree at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.
The Epsilon Award nomination for J. Darrel Thomas was submitted by Jambey Clinkscales, chair of the HP Black Employee Leadership Council.
