Chris Howard was among the top 2% of students in his High School class. Choosing between architecture, computer science, and electrical engineering, he was awarded a full scholarship to study EE at the University of Houston in their honors program. But after an IBM engineer jokingly told him to "become an expert" in the department's first and only IBM PC, he did just that and became a lifelong entrepreneur in the field.
Chris started his career as a co-op student at IBM's Federal Systems Division, which supported the space program at NASA. Working during the day at IBM and attending night classes at UH, his early professional experience included software development for a space workstation — prototyping user interfaces and software that could be easy to use in space.
Chris founded Softeq Development back in 1997 with a focus on technical software development, based on his passion for solving complex problems. Since then the company’s firmware, hardware, and embedded capabilities have been augmented with mobile and web expertise, as well as complex engineering for IoT.
A lifelong entrepreneur, Chris is an active angel investor and advisor in several start-up technology ventures. Chris is interested in building businesses that excel while fostering a positive and creative work environment. He loves using technology to solve complex problems and working to build the best technical software outsourcing team possible. He is a family man, a sport pilot, a published magazine and book author, an admitted gadget geek -- and he believes that sleep is highly overrated.
Howard also serves as General Partner of the Softeq Venture Fund.
Craig Ceccanti is an experienced business leader, multi-time startup founder, and graduate lecturer at Rice University where he received his MBA.
Craig joined Softeq from T-Minus Solutions, a custom software development company he founded and served as CEO and President. Before that, Ceccanti founded Pinot’s Palette, a retail entertainment franchise with 130+ locations in the U.S. and Canada, and sEATz, a software startup revolutionizing the concession and in-seat experience at sporting and entertainment events. Craig has a BS in Computer Science, a BA in MIS, and an MBA from Rice, where he also serves on the faculty at the Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business. In his role as COO at Softeq, Ceccanti oversees the day-to-day operations of the company and improves internal and external processes.
Edwin Lemus is a seasoned human resources leader with international experience in technology and other industries.
Edwin has 20+ years of experience leading people and talent-related programs globally for technology enterprises. Lemus recently led the People Experience organization for a cybersecurity company where he designed and executed their people experience strategy centered on building a destination culture for employees. Lemus previously held the position of Director of the Americas for a technology company where he successfully expanded their LATAM region that included a new R&D center in Mexico City. Lemus further elevates the company’s people operations team and will build a cohesive company culture with an increasingly distributed workforce in 22 locations around the world.
