About W.D. Morrison
Meet Dan
Morrison is a 6th generation Mississippian and father of two. He’s a published biological scientist and business writer, professional project manager, amateur historian, and dabster cook. He was a New Left radical and teen revolutionary in days when that could be hazardous to one’s health in Mississippi. His personal mission is to promote, peace, creativity, and unity on the planet.
Morrison grew up in Jackson during the most turbulent times of the nineteen fifties and sixties. He spent most of his adulthood in careers as a scientist, entrepreneur, and IT consultant.
The child of upper middle-class parents, young Dan was raised in literary and artistic circles “where the greatest values were interesting guests, stimulating conversation, good bourbon, and polite children”.
The sophisticated socializing at home took place against a backdrop of the rapid and violent changes that came with the civil rights movement: lynchings, bombings, and the creation of a state-funded spy agency dedicated to preserving the “Mississippi Way of Life.” The buzz in the air of Dan’s childhood included… Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, James Meredith, Freedom Riders, Medgar Evers, The Beatles, Martin Luther King, Neshoba County, White Citizens Council, Jimi Hendrix, Timothy Leary, My Lai , and Da Nang.
In Edge City, Mississippi we relive those times through the eyes of a kid who was skating on the edge himself… busted in a liquor store after hours at age 13, a chronic sneaker-outer with a penchant for getting caught, a world-class case of acne that made him a social outcast, the tragic deaths of two close friends when he was fourteen. All this orchestrated to an incredible rock and soul music soundtrack that catalyzed the transformation of America.
Dan came of age at the height of the Vietnam era and the rise of the counterculture movement. In high school he was one of the first hippies in Jackson and became actively involved in creating a bi-racial youth community center called Edge City. The officials of Jackson, in league with the FBI and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, did everything they could to close the place. Edge City, Mississippi tells the tale of how a group of committed young people joined forces to change the Mississippi Way of Life.
Career Bio
In his business career Dan was an entrepreneurial leader with an extensive portfolio of success driving development and overall operations of technology-based organizations across governmental, private, and academic sectors. He has been instrumental in launching start-up enterprises and turning around underperforming operations.
Morrison enjoyed a broad record of success leading overall operations, tackling problems head-on, and steering organizations through the challenges of rapid growth and change. He proved adept at leveraging advanced business acumen, strategic thinking, and business planning skills to build efficient operations and bottom-line growth. His core strength was establishing and maintaining trust-based relationships at the senior executive level in the organizations he served.
Morrison developed deep experience working with state government leaders, planning and directing consultative IT engagements, building teams, and delivering a diverse spectrum of secure hosted solutions. He was an expert facilitator of strategic planning sessions, focus groups, and JAD sessions for discovery of customer business processes, workflows, and opportunities to develop new information product solutions. He was adept at performing gap analyses of customer needs against a diverse portfolio of pre-existing products, then developing detailed specifications for the customer’s final product. To his clients he brought top-notch project management, communication, engagement management, and team-building skills to meet their business goals and objectives, ensure project delivery, and hit performance targets.
Dan previously led the Hawaii, South Carolina, and Colorado subsidiaries of eGovernment firm NIC, Inc. (now owned by Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL)) serving as consultant and advisor to senior state and local government executives on mission centric, cost-effective IT strategies, including custom solution development, hosting services, security matters, and online transaction services.
Prior to joining NIC, he leveraged his extensive background in government contracting and new business development as President of his own firm, Morrison Associates, Inc., where he provided consulting services to companies and government agencies operating in the Gulf region. As founding executive director of the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology, Morrison oversaw a comprehensive, statewide program of technology-based economic development. He also served as Executive Director of the Texas Innovation Network, chartered by the Texas Legislature to stimulate technology businesses in Texas.