TECHCON 2015 Opening Keynote Speaker: Doug Hanson
Doug Hanson was born and raised in Katy, Texas, a small town west of Houston. Doug played football at Sam Houston State University where he graduated with an undergraduate B.S. in Computer Science in 1985. His favorite memories from Sam Houston revolve around the girl who tutored him in math, who later became his biggest fan, best friend, and wife of more than 20 years. Together Doug and Helen have four children, ages 10 to 18.
In the mid to late 80’s, Doug began his business career as an Events Director for ESPN televised sporting events. He worked his way up through the ranks becoming the National Director of Operations for Pace Entertainment, but decided to leave the entertainment industry in 1988 to utilize his computer science degree and pursue his interests in technology.
For the rest of the 80’s and most of the 90’s, Doug focused his energies on developing his sales and business skills in the fast-paced computer industry. In his 9 year sales career with Toshiba, Texas Instruments, and Hewlett Packard, Doug earned national recognition 7 times for sales performance. During this time he also earned his MBA from the University of Houston Executive program, where he graduated in 1994 with honors. He finished his sales career in 1996 as a National Accounts Sales Manager, HP’s highest level sales position at the time.
Near the end of 1994, while continuing his full-time career in sales, Doug began helping a close friend on weekends at various experiential team building events across the country. It was here that Doug recognized his gift of inspiration and realized his passion for helping people find happiness, success, and fulfillment in their life. That same year, Doug was invited to facilitate the experiential initiatives at Tony Robbins’ 10-day event, Life Mastery University held annually in Hawaii. Doug participated in this event for 7 consecutive years with increasing levels of responsibility each year.
By 1996, demand for Doug’s seminars and team building activities began to skyrocket. With the financial demands of a family with four children in the back of his mind, Doug took the leap of faith, left his secure corporate job (including the salary, company car, and all the benefits) and ventured full time into his own company, providing speaking and consulting services. Doug is quick to point out that having Helen’s full blessing and support is what made this decision possible.
In 1999, during the peak of internet boom, while steadily growing his speaking and consulting business, Doug was one of the initial team members that started Bamboo.com, a developer and provider of innovative on-line virtual imaging technology for the real estate industry. Before changing names to IPIX, Bamboo.com’s product had spread to other industries and grew to be the world’s largest provider of online video content in just two years.
