David Foss has grown quite accustomed to the 50-minute flight between McKinney, Texas, and Monett. Foss routinely hops aboard the company charter connecting the ProfitStars division he’s led for a decade and the national headquarters of Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (Nasdaq: JKHY).
“We run the shuttle back and forth to Dallas several times a week,” Foss says. “On Monday mornings, I’ll leave at 7:30, and I’m usually at my desk by 8:30. Then, I’ll fly home Tuesday night or Thursday night, depending on what shuttle I get on.”
In 2014, Foss was named president of the financial software company, which now generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue. In Jack Henry’s first quarter of fiscal 2015, the provider of computer systems and electronic payment products posted $318.8 million in revenue, up 8 percent under Foss’ early guidance from the year before.
Jack Henry, which primarily serves banks and credit unions across the United States, works with roughly 11,300 financial institutions nationwide and operates three primary divisions: Jack Henry Banking, which supports small to mid-tier banks; Symitar, a provider of information-processing products for credit unions; and ProfitStars, which works with financial institutions of any footprint.
As president, Foss says he’s a team-builder who’s spent his first year reorganizing and removing barriers to innovation that have developed within the company over the years.
“My ultimate goal was to break down some of those silos to get teams with like products to work together to create solutions as opposed to products. It’s more about serving our customers better than anything,” he says.
While he’s lived with his family in Dallas for 17 years, Foss’ connections to southwest Missouri pre-date his involvement with Jack Henry. Through Dallas-based BancTec, Foss ran a division that regularly brought him to the Ozarks. In 1999, he was tasked with selling the community-banking division of BancTec, which is how he landed at Jack Henry.
By 2004, Foss led Jack Henry’s effort to launch the ProfitStars division from the ground up.
“Starting from zero, we did 20 acquisitions to create what is today ProfitStars,” Foss says.
He succeeded retiring President Tony Wormington in July and says now that acquisition experience is paying dividends.
“I’m the guy who’d walk in after the company has been acquired and I stand up in front of the employees, who are shell-shocked and going ‘What just happened to me, and who is Jack Henry,’ and I tell them the story,” he says. “All of that experience has definitely helped with our reorganization.”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
