ITsmiths: Chris Romano, Global Chief Technologist at Dell EMC

As you know, choosing a career in IT doesn’t mean your job has to stay inside the IT department.

Chris Romano is one such example.

If you’ve been to a VMworld, EMCWorld, CiscoLive, or NetApp Insight conference, you may have listened to a presentation by Chris.

In addition to being a frequent presenter at gigantic IT conferences, he was employee number 87 for VMware, and in his 16 year tenure there, he worked his way up to the prestigious role of Principal Systems Engineer.

Currently, Chris is a Global Chief Technologist for Dell EMC, which basically means he gets to travel the Globe, helping companies brainstorm on how to use Dell’s latest technology inside their own products.

But what you don’t know about Chris, is that as a kid, he wasn’t remotely interested in IT.

In fact, as you’ll hear, he actually had a pretty tumultuous childhood…

But if there is one thing that’s been consistent about Chris throughout his life, it’s that he’s a risk taker, since day one. Which always makes for a good story.

Here’s Chris.