20 UNDER 40: DANIEL SPUTA – BUSINESS JOURNAL NEPA
Original article printed by TOM GRAHAM in Business Journal NEPA
Daniel Sputa lives simply and honestly. “I try to treat people with respect and dignity regardless of their background and religion, culture and ethnicity,” explains the decision support manager at UM Technologies Exchange.
Sputa is responsible for the business intelligence activities related to a data set comprised of more than 18 million data points for the nation’s leading energy management platform. “On daily basis, in order to maintain our operational objectives regarding our energy management platform, I am continually contributing information and recommendations to improve our strategic plans and reviews by implementing production, quality and customer-service standards, work on resolving any problems, determining system improvements and work with our development team to implement changes,” he explains.
Building computers since he was 16 years old, Sputa attended the Czech Technical University in Prague to study cybernetics. In 2005, an opportunity to study in the United States had him take a leave of absence from to learn English. He was volunteering for a year for Czech Catholic Church in California when he learned about Marywood University where he enrolled in 2006 and graduated with bachelor degree in mathematics and business information systems. He later obtained his master’s degree in financial information systems. Later in 2013, he earned Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification from Purdue University on process improvements.
Sputa believes to be successful in leadership and management is to have a broader understanding of different areas in life, business, and technology.
He was selected to serve as a senior investment analyst for Marywood Pacer investment fund and also worked his way from cleaning tables in the cafeteria to working for the technical helpdesk and later as a graduate assistant for Marywood website department. He was offered a position at TR Technology Solutions and then transitioned to the newly organized UM Technologies Exchange.
Sputa believes to be successful in leadership and management is to have a broader understanding of different areas of life, business, and technology. “Because of the many experiences in my life, I was able to develop creative, analytical and critical thinking and become a well-rounded person. I read daily and keep myself up to date on latest trends in all those areas so I can stay on the edge of the new development and can quickly implement new ideas at my work,” he said.
