Reg Shuford is a lifelong learner

Reg Shuford, product director of the General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS), leads a team of 350 people who develop and modernize the Army’s cloud-based financial-management system.

A hands-on leader with more than 15 years of Army software-acquisition experience, Shuford has managed all aspects of the program-management lifecycle. Widely considered an expert in developing enterprise-resource-planning systems for the Army, he has encountered and resolved the vast majority of problems associated with the development and fielding of software products.  

A North Carolina native and barbecue fan, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Norfolk University. Shuford, today’s #PEOEISTeammateTuesday, answered questions about his career and life.

What did you do after graduating from college?
I was one day away from starting a training program to become a manager at a McDonald’s restaurant in Maryland when I got a call from a contractor. Northrop Grumman offered me a job as a military trainer teaching people how to use the Defense Travel System. 

What challenges have you overcome in your career?
When I started my first job after college as a military trainer, I mastered the curriculum, but I had no teaching experience and wasn't a good public speaker. Being thrown into that role made me develop my teaching and public speaking skills. When I started the job fresh out of school, I wasn’t good at it. I wasn’t able to read the room. But I kept working at getting better.

All challenges are lessons. And sometimes the lesson you take away is: This isn’t for me. While I was working for Northrop, I started testing software releases on a part-time basis. I subsequently moved into a full-time role providing software testing for the Army Test and Evaluation Command and was introduced to software acquisition.

How did you become a better public speaker?
I observed good public speakers and mimicked them. For example, former Maj. Gen. Patrick Burden always tailored his message to the audience. He would repeat every question he got from the audience to demonstrate that he was listening. 

When you are a public speaker, you have to master the content in your brief. When I brief, I understand not just what’s in the slide deck, but everything two or three levels deeper than that. When you have to park a lot of questions or the crowd thinks you don’t understand the topic, you lose control of the audience.

What is your favorite word?
Scholarly. I am a lifelong learner. One of the things that I learned in college, believe it or not, is that knowledge has to continue outside the classroom. You have to learn every day. What you learn from other people and industry keeps you relevant in the software world. Software problems continue to change.

Why is PEO EIS a great place to work?
The Army is a very, very big place, but when it comes to software, PEO EIS has the largest piece of the Army’s software pie. If you want to manage software and business applications, PEO EIS is the perfect place to be.

PEO EIS gives people the opportunity to solve some of the Army’s hardest problems with the latest-and-greatest commercial technology. We don’t build software from scratch or custom code legacy systems. We develop creative, integrated solutions to complex software problems. I am a software guy, so using the cutting-edge of what’s commercially available to solve Army problems is exciting.

What does a good leader do?
A good leader leads by example. You have to be the calm in the storm. When things go awry or get hectic, a good leader remains calm and brings that calming feeling to their team.

What does a good leader not do?
A good leader does not micromanage.

What advice do you have for companies interested in working for PEO EIS?
You have to understand the Army’s unique problems. A lot of companies just want to sell their product instead of demonstrating how their commercial product can solve an actual Army problem.

What is your proudest moment?
Marrying my wife is my proudest moment. She brings out the best in me and pushes me to achieve my goals.

If you could thank anyone for the role they played in your life, who would it be and why?
My parents. While raising children, my father served in the Army and my mother supported the Army as a civilian. They gave me a strong work ethic and always encouraged me to finish what I started.

What are you for or against?
I am for always doing the right thing. My faith guides me to do right by the folks I work with and do good in the world.