Page 62 - Powerlist 2020

INTERVIEW
Media, Publishing & Entertainment Sherman tells Alexa Baracaia how he went from tinkering with his parents’

Michael Sherman

From ‘geeky kid’ to BT’s chief strategy and transformation officer – Mike

Apple computer to being one of the foremost black executives today

Sum up your job in a sentence Any other top tips?
I lead for the entire group of 100,000 You had better be a very good
employees, defining the future business networker, you’re gonna have to
strategy for BT and helping to drive network with a lot of people. Also,
change to make sure our business is investors don’t just want an idea
thriving for the future. on paper; you have to go in with
something that shows it can work.
Track us back to your childhood.
Where did you grow up? Were you always tinkering with tech
In the US, largely Dallas but my father as a kid?
was in the military so we moved about I was a full-on geek! I started
– Washington DC, San Francisco. I programming at home when I was
went to Duke University and studied 12, languages like Assembly and
electrical engineering, computing and C Programming. Then I started
maths and later got my MBA. electronics at 15.

And of course there’s the bit where you What was your first at-home
founded a multi-million-dollar global tech project?
software firm at 23… Early on I was trying to hook our Apple
When I graduated with my first computer up to an analogue video
degree I was one of the first few camera and they weren’t compatible.
black tech engineers. I raised And – ha – copying videogames,
£100million in venture capital to set designing a circuit to allow me and my
up Viewlocity, a supply team logistics mates to make those copies…
company building software for supply
chain networks. Was the path mapped
out for you early on?
Was that always the plan? It really wasn’t. I
It wasn’t that I dreamed about being originally went in
an entrepreneur – the opportunity thinking I was going
presented itself. I was in the US Marine to be a medical
Corp when I was at college and met a doctor, I started in
Marine Officer who became a friend pre-med chemistry
and supporter. He was chairman of and hated it. So I
a company called Invacare and it had to drop out
was through them that I landed my and reapply to
first contract. engineering school.
I had to reset my
How did you raise so much money? curriculum to catch
Luck! At the time the market was hot up because I’d been
for good ideas in the software space. I on a different path.
went knocking on doors. But I ended up triple
majoring so it was
Is that kind of thing even possible the right move.
today?
I think there’s more opportunity now That must have
than back then. There is so much capital been tough, to
available for entrepreneurship; people drop out and take
underestimate how easy it is to raise a gamble. How did
capital if you have a business plan, drive your family react?
and tech knowledge. I didn’t tell them

62 Powerlist 2020