2011 Forty Under 40: Shannon Morris

 

About me…

Shannon Morris
Executive director of business development
eImagine Technology Group
39

Web sites:

www.thinketg.com

Social media:

Shannon Uhl Morris
Shannon Morris

On my hip:

iPhone

Most-used apps:

Google Maps
Facebook
iPod
Notepad
safari
calendar
Shazam
IndyStar

Favorite stuff:

Books, including "Blink," "Outliers," "The Tipping Point," "The She Spot," "The Economies of Cities," "The Catcher and the Rye," "The Other Boleyn Girl," "The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine Boneparte," "This is where I Leave You"; movies, including "The American President," "Dave," "Wedding Crashers," "Grease," "Chocolat," "Four Weddings and a Funeral"; neighborhoods, including Mass Ave, Broad Ripple and Fountain Square; commentators, including Ann Marie Tiernon, Brian Williams and Christiane Amanpour.

 

As executive director of the technology consulting firm eImagine Technology Group, Shannon Morris puts together teams to work with clients.

“We do a lot with state government and federal government, the Department of Education and the financial sector. It’s custom-development application work,” she said.

Companies like eImagine have benefited from Gov. Mitch Daniels’ emphasis on technology as a way to make government more efficient.

For example, eImagine is working on a new licensing system for teachers in the state.

“When [teachers] graduate from the universities, they’ll put their information into the system, and it’ll track their professional development,” Morris said. “Technology really ends up providing better customer service and at a lower cost when it’s done right.”

Since Morris joined the company, her efforts to build partnerships with companies like Washington-based Microsoft and California-based Oracle, as well as relationships with other businesses and governments, have created double-digit growth for eImagine during the economic downturn.

“It’s a good relationship-building city, and that’s what I enjoy, connecting people,” she said.

She grew up in the northern Chicago suburb of Algonquin, and studied telecommunications and English at Indiana University. She held upper-management roles at Ameritech, a former AT&T spinoff, and Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, discovering along the way that she enjoyed cultivating clients and building business relationships.

When she stepped back from the work force to be home with her children, she took on volunteer leadership positions with The Children’s Museum and the Women of Riley Hospital, among others. Education is a key interest of hers, and she is on the board of TeachPlus, a group that encourages teacher development.

When she decided to re-enter the work force, she did it on her terms, negotiating flexible hours to be home after school with her children.

“It was very important to me that my kids saw me working, and that we had a 50-50 family environment, dad and mom are both contributing,” she said. Her husband runs his own business, so his hours are somewhat flexible, she said.

“I schedule client meetings during the day, then do follow-up work in the afternoon,” she said. “It is perfect.”•

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