Preparation the Password in High-Tech CEO’s Success
Connie Galley was one of those kids who really liked playing science and math games.
She’s still playing those games, but these days, with much more expensive toys. Galley is president and chief executive officer of TSI International, a computer company specializing in software for electronic invoicing.
A career in computers fit well with Galley’s personality.
“What it takes to be attracted to the computer field is to be somewhat logical, conceptual, and you like to solve problems,” she said. “It’s a little bit like play. You’re attracted to it.”
Galley, 55, is something of a computer industry pioneer, starting out long before there were PCs or Macintoshes. She’s been in the business since 1963, when she got her first job after college as a systems engineer with IBM. And when she did her undergraduate work at Duke University, she majored in chemistry--there was no computer science study course.
After various jobs with IBM and Norwalk-based Turnkey Systems Inc., she went to work for a Dun & Bradstreet start-up that sold personal computers and software at the start of the PC era in the early 1980s.
When TSI International was spun off from Dun & Bradstreet in 1985, she was named CEO. Under Galley’s leadership, the company, which started out selling data-entry software, jumped into electronic invoicing. It developed some of the leading software for Electronic Data Interchange, which allows companies to electronically transfer business documents to trading partners.
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Today, the company’s EDI software is used by more than 10,000 companies, including Wal-Mart, Ace Hardware, Liz Claiborne and General Mills.
TSI International’s sales have quadrupled to $20 million since 1985, when Galley became CEO.
Galley said one of the most enjoyable aspects of her job is seeing a need in the marketplace, then developing software to fit that need.
“Software is terrific because you can mold it and make it do anything,” she said.
Galley, who is known in the business community for her modesty, credits TSI’s employees for any success the company has had.
“You just don’t do it by yourself,” she said. “There are many people responsible.”
Over the last 18 months, Galley has raised the company’s profile as well as her own by becoming the first woman to chair the Southwestern Area Commerce & Industry Assn., a regional business council.
Traditionally, the group picked Fortune 500 executives who run multibillion-dollar companies and have thousands of employees. Galley’s company has about 140 employees and projects sales of $20 million for 1996.
SACIA President Christopher Bruhl said Galley was chosen because of her reputation as an effective leader.
James Schadt, chairman and chief executive officer of Reader’s Digest Assn. Inc., said Galley has a pleasant demeanor that belies her reputation as a driven business leader.
“You would never know in a crowd that she is as successful as she is,” he said. “Whenever I introduce her, people are surprised that she’s a CEO.”
Schadt, who has known Galley for 30 years, said she made raising two children, running a company and being a good athlete appear effortless.
Schadt, a neighbor of Galley’s in the affluent community of Westport, recalled one Christmas Eve gathering several years ago, after the Galleys had just finished renovating and redecorating their house. One of the guests spilled deep burgundy port wine on a new white chair.
“She didn’t blink. She just kept up her polite demeanor, and about a week later, there was a different white chair in the dining room,” Schadt said. “Nothing was ever said [to the guest]. That’s how she is. She rolls with the punches.”
Galley has two grown children--a son, 31, and a daughter, 29. Her husband is a managing partner at Furman Selz, a brokerage and investment banking firm.
When she’s not working her typical 10-to-12-hour day, she skis and plays tennis.
Galley said she hasn’t encountered the kind of obstacles many other women in business describe. She said she believes that there are fewer barriers to women at smaller companies, especially in the software industry. Today, about 43% of TSI’s work force is female , and at times, has been as high as 50%.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of bias in software--it’s new, it’s young. You don’t have a lot of time to build a lot of Old Boy networks,” she said. “If there were barriers, my approach would be to go elsewhere.”
