Thomas R. Kennedy Jr.

Thomas R Kennedy Jr. (born November 26, 1950) is an American Software Architect and technology visionary. He is well known for creating rapid application development platforms beginning as early as 1979.

Kennedy began working at TOM Software in Seattle WA in 1977 and became Director of Application Development. The first 4GL platforms he worked on were SPEED I and SPEED II.

From his early work on rapid application development platforms in Seattle he worked in software platform architecture including using a true 3-tiered architecture for his platforms.

Kennedy moved from Seattle and pursued several industry positions in consulting and application development before founding his first software development and consulting business Kennedy & Associates in Richmond, VA along with his spouse Patricia Kennedy.[1]

Kennedy & Associates became a reseller of TOM Software products and grew to twice the size of TOM Software itself. Kennedy purchased the company in 1991. Kennedy & Associates then released APPX Software which was a 4GL platform enabling rapid application development on multiple hardware platforms including WANG VS, DEC VAX and the PC. Kennedy & Associates along with their new software division APPX Software continued to grow and was named fastest growing profitable company (Rising 25) in Richmond VA for 3 years running 1990-1992. In late 1992, Kennedy & Associates was purchased by Tredegar Industries in Richmond VA.

Post sale Kennedy spent time developing more advanced platforms and founded BackOffice Associates in 1996.[2] He went on to patent a direct rendering technology inside the CranSoft platform that enabled rapid application development in a declarative environment. BackOffice Associates experienced exponential growth and profitability and sold to Goldman Sachs private equity initially in 2008 for a 15% stake with a final buyout in 2012.[3]

In 2013, Kennedy co-founded Zudy with his wife, Patricia Kennedy.[4] The company’s low-code development platform, VINYL, allows organizations to rapidly develop enterprise applications without any code. In December 2014, South Florida investors Miami Stuff LLC invested $7.5 million in Zudy.[5] The company has hiring goals of 350 people by the end of 2018, with 150+ hired this year and another 120 by the end of 2018 at its Harwich, MA innovation & training center.[6] Zudy currently has 36 customers that include iHeart Media, the New England Patriots and Brooks Brothers.[7]

Kennedy attended the University of South Florida where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Math and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. In 1975 he attended post graduate school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he began his initial work in computer programming.

Personal life

Kennedy is married to Patricia Kennedy, co-founder and former CEO of BackOffice Associates. She is also founder of SportsMoney and Zudy.com. They reside in Miami Beach, Florida and summer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts with their 4 sons.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Rizoli, Jay (March 2008) "BackOffice Associates' Kennedy's are a Cape Coding Couple" Boston Business Journal
  2. ↑ Woodie, Alex (April 2008) "Data Quality is a BackOffice Associates Strategy" IT Jungle
  3. ↑ Kharif, Olga, (December 2012) "Goldman Sachs- Backed BackOffice Buys Out Founders as IPO Planned." Bloomberg
  4. ↑ Harris, David (January 2015) "" Boston Business Journal
  5. ↑ Harris, David (January 2015) "" Boston Business Journal
  6. ↑ Lima, Debora. (June 2017) ""
  7. ↑ Harris, David (June 2017) ""
  8. ↑ Gold, Robert (December 2012) "BackOffice buys out Cape-based founders Archived 2012-12-31 at the Library of Congress Web Archives" Cape Cod Times
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