Scott Ghormley’s history with Advantage starts before there even was an Advantage Computing Systems. In 1978, when he was 15 years old, he was hired by Infomatics--one of the precursor companies to ACS--to work in their computer room “flopping tapes and delivering output.” He has come a long way since then. Scott returned to the company as an intern twice between his first stint and 1986 when he was hired as a full-time employee. That lasted until 1988. During his time away, Scott spent four years in the IT department at Domino’s Pizza, and also worked as a consultant and network engineer at a variety of Detroit-area based companies (including Lotus Notes Development).
Scott returned to ACS in 1997, this time as a lead engineer in the group led by Karl Davis. He worked on a number of implementation projects for clients including Boy Scouts, SRDS, Farm Progress, Horizon Publishing, Ogden, Oakstone, Penton, American Medical Association, Bayard Presse, and ACP.
Peter Loftus of SRDS has this to say about working with Scott: “Although I have not had the pleasure of working with Scott for several years, he has always been there for SRDS in the past. His knowledge, patience, good humor, and excellent problem-solving skills have gotten us through quite a few situations. His attention to detail and keen understanding was a great assistance to me and ultimately benefitted our SRDS Clients.”
Peter continues: “I would eagerly welcome the chance to work with Scott on any future initiatives. We share fond memories of Scott, from the time he got deathly ill from eating fish at a local hotel, to crazy whirly-ball matches, to him solving a label problem with my assistant, who was in labor with her first child and heading for the delivery room.”
Several years ago, Scott moved to the Client Services Division at ACS, where his technical abilities and people skills are put to good use. There, he has served in project manager and account manager roles, working with clients such as Agora Publishing and Our Sunday Visitor. He enjoys working onsite with clients and problem-solving. Scott has also helped out in the sales area, performing software presentations and representing ACS at trade shows.
Scott’s supervisor, Greg Stout, sings his praises: “Scott is one competent guy. The combination of his Advantage product knowledge, industry expertise, and communication skills make him the perfect fit for serving our clients. Scott takes personal responsibility for everything that comes his way and his level of commitment to the well-being of his clients is second to none.”
Born in Tampa, Florida, Scott has lived the vast majority of his life in the Ann Arbor area. He decided to make a break from his hometown and went to college at Miami of Ohio. He finished up at Eastern Michigan University, however, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in operations research information systems (now called MIS).
Another link between Scott and ACS is the fact his father, Ron, was president of the company from 1980 to 1981.
Scott lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Tammy, a nurse practitioner, their four children, and Molly the dog. Mike, 19, just finished his freshman year at Carnegie Mellon, where he also plays football. Elena, 16, will be a junior in high school this next year and is a competitive diver. Peter, 9, is going into the 4th grade and Derek, 6, will be a first-grader in the fall. Kids activities keep Scott busy in his non-working hours. He coaches several of the teams the younger boys are in, which is not too much of a sacrifice, as Scott describes himself as a “sports junkie.” University of Michigan football is his favorite, but he is interested in just about anything sports-related. Family vacations are usually spent camping and they enjoy visiting state parks throughout the Midwest. In his rare free time, Scott likes fly-fishing and doing projects such as building decks.
