Brian Burson

“I am honored to write this recommendation for Brian. It is the easiest reference I’ve ever written. Brian joined DHI Group at a critical and honestly toxic time. We were carving the healthcare business out of a shared corporate software platform and development team. It would be a contentious and challenging job.

Brian understands that technology exists only to support the strategic needs of the business. As such his approach to decision making is refreshingly agnostic. He chooses the tools, services and approaches that best fit the challenge at hand within the context of resource or timeline limitations and long-term goals. He applies experience and new learning to decisions without bias. When the chosen path isn’t working he uses the fail as an educational opportunity, communicates to stakeholders and makes the necessary adjustments.

He is the best I’ve seen at building, aligning, developing and motivating a diverse team. He helps engineers understand the business needs and helps business stakeholders understand the needs of engineering. He understands the vital role of culture and recruits his team to envision and nurture the values, traditions and ecosystem necessary for it to flourish. Brian was universally respected, trusted and admired by his team.

But thing I value most about Brian had nothing to do with technology. As he shored up and stabilized the crisis he inherited, Brian was able to add value to other functional areas from product to finance. He became a critical voice in strategy, overall executive leadership, upstream management and board level decisions. Brian was a key member of our successful divestiture process including road shows, negotiations, diligence and post sale integration. Brian has vast and diverse business experience, a mind that is always observing and learning and eerily accurate human instincts. Brian became a trusted business partner, mentor and friend. ”

“It was my great privilege to work with Brian at Health eCareers. During our time working together, I witnessed him build a development team, and establish a highly positive and supportive culture for the team. Brian is realistic and honest in dealing with issues, technical or otherwise. He is relentlessly positive, focusing on solutions. He also has an executive level presence and awareness that makes him able to communicate very effectively upward. He’s an unbelievable asset to any team that develops software, and he inspires loyalty and dedication from both company executives and the teams that he leads.”

“Brian joined Healthe eCareers as part of a large reorganization at the tail end of an arduous project. He inherited a group of very talented individuals who were lacking motivation, unity, and sense of purpose. Brian challenged the group to identify and own areas of team self-improvement. His unwavering support and positive motivation quickly turned the group into a high functioning and collaborative team which thrived on open/honest communication. Failures were embraced without fear of retribution. Whenever possible, decisions were pushed down which promoted team ownership. Team culture, eliminating wasteful process, and delivering quality solutions became our pillars. Within 2 years’ our development team earned the highest employee satisfaction rating in the entire organization. I would highly recommend Brian to any organization who is looking to build a collaborative and energized team that thrives on delivering value while having fun. I hope to have the opportunity to work with him in the future. ”

“I worked for Brian while he was VP of Development at Health eCareers. Working with Brian was great. He understood the direction the company was going, and always helped provide direction and vision for our team, which we really appreciated. He is really charismatic, and has a way about him that draws people in. There were several times when folks on other teams told me they would have liked to work on our team, just to work with Brian. Brian’s leadership style is open and approachable, and he seeks to understand before making decisions. Brian really cared about our culture, and took the time to develop a culture that our team wanted. Brian has been a great mentor and leader, and I’d be happy to work for him again.”

“I was lucky enough to have worked with Brian as a DevOps engineer for his team at HealtheCareers, where he fostered and led a culture of hard working, motivated, and fun developers. He created a cohesive and creative atmosphere where everyone enjoyed coming to work in a positive environment and were not afraid to speak up. He also was a great communicator, who served as a bridge between the executives and his team. I would be a pleasure to work for such a natural leader again.”

“I’ve worked with Brian in some capacity for over six years while I was at eCollege/Pearson. When I started in a manager position, I interacted with dev managers in his department and as I moved in to a director position, his advice, and mentoring allowed me to transition in as efficiently as possible.

In addition to Brian being a true leader for many people at ecollege/Pearson, he has the rare ability to teach and lead - a true servant leader. I learned more about career development and leadership while working with Brian than any other time in my career and he still serves as a mentor since I’ve moved on in my career.

Brian has been, is and will continue to be an immense value to any organization fortunate to have him. His ability to speak with all levels of teams - practitioners, management, executives and customers - instills confidence at the core. I personally appreciated the inroads we made with the collaboration between dev and qa and I think that serves as an indication of his vision and execution from a holistic standpoint.”

“I’ve had the good fortune to work for Brian at Pearson Higher Ed for the past several years. Brian’s professionalism and his personable, caring, and motivated nature make him a well-liked team leader. I especially appreciate his focus on not only advancing the company goals, but on also assisting his team on achieving professional and personal goals. As a Vice President with significant responsibilities and competing priorities, Brian consistently provided valuable product and software direction and mentored me and my peers in driving successful software releases, hitting delivery dates, and doing it all with a strong sense of integrity and organizational commitment.”

“Brian is a dynamic leader and accomplished manager. I greatly benefitted from Brian’s wisdom in building and leading teams. He is a planner by nature (something I wish I was better at), but also a patient and loyal coach who excels in navigating complex resourcing tradeoffs. He is diligent in parsing the intentions from the business directives, realistic in considering what can be accomplished, and inspirational in setting an agenda toward stretch goals or amidst organizational change. We bled together to cover three generations of SaaS applications, growing from a team of 60 to over 1000, building systems which supported billions of transactions a day. He led multiple transitions in technology, business strategy, and engineering practice. His creativity, positive attitude, and humor always fed a culture where good ideas could win, developers felt strong ownership, and new market opportunities were met with new product. I consider Brian to be a mentor, friend, and someone I would be very privileged to work with again.”