The El Dorado County resident has been in the tech industry for about 35 years.
“I started with an internship in the mid-’80s, actually wheeling typewriters around the Capitol,” he told Techwire. “Most recently, I’ve been involved in the startup/innovation/exponential-technology curve. I’ve had an opportunity to do some work in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, Japan — so the innovation thing has really been exciting. But at the end of the day, artificial intelligence and data — the ability to understand and pull insights out — is where it’s at. So my journey has taken me here.”
While he’s had as many as 400 direct reports during his career, he’s also enjoyed being “an individual contributor.”
“I joined SAS because of its long track record of supporting justice and public safety, transportation, labor, fire, ag and a broad range of critical SLED verticals,” he said.
Waterman’s area of responsibility with SAS is servicing state government, as well as all its cities and counties.
“That’s a big responsibility, and it’s a lot to work on,” he said. “I’ll leverage my experience and relationships to map that out and hopefully accomplish things. At this stage of my life, my career goals wouldn’t be to manage massive teams — rather, to work with my peers and clients just to solve massive problems.
“Working with some of the people at the state that I’ve known all these years is a great place to be in my journey. SAS is already a great partner to the state of California. I look forward to expanding that relationship by helping agencies build centers of excellence to use their data to eliminate fraud, to address climate change, to get ahead of fire risk, to build a safer tomorrow for law enforcement and, across all departments, to make the best decisions for the well-being of the citizens of the state of California.”
Waterman’s background includes affiliations with Vanstar, Inacom, Unisys, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Google. He’s also been involved with several startups including One Concern, Forward Innovation Group and XCurve Partners. He’s been a frequent public speaker worldwide, and has spoken multiple times before the World Economic Forum.
Waterman and his wife have two children, and he has taken up playing the bass in a family band. He’s a graduate of California State University at Sacramento, where he majored in business administration/management and finance/marketing. He volunteers with several nonprofit organizations including the Sacramento Children’s Home and the Special Olympics.
