Kerrie Holly
*Kerrie Lamont Holley was born on this date in 1954. He is a Black software architect, author, researcher, and Inventor.
Holley was raised by his maternal grandmother on Chicago's south side. While never having met his father. Holley became a student at the Sue Duncan Children’s Center in 1961, where he was tutored in math and science. As he excelled in the program, he became a tutor at the Center, later tutoring former United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and actor Michael Duncan Clarke. After graduating from Kenwood Academy in 1972, Holley received his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from DePaul University in Chicago, followed by a Juris Doctor Degree in 1982 from DePaul University College of Law.
Holley joined IBM in 1986 as an Advisory Systems Engineer. In 1990, he became an analytics consultant with IBM’s consulting group, now called IBM Global Business Services. He was appointed Chief Technology Officer of IBM’s GBS, AIS, and IBM's SOA Center of Excellence. He works with clients to create flexible applications that enable companies to respond to rapidly changing markets. SOA (service-oriented architecture) is a software design methodology based on structured collections of discrete software modules, known as services, that collectively provide the complete functionality of a large or complex software application.
In 2000, he was appointed IBM Distinguished Engineer and elected to IBM’s Academy of Technology that same year. Holley is a co-patent owner of the industry’s first SOA method and maturity model, which helps companies develop SOA-based applications and infrastructures.
In 2016, he joined UnitedHealth Group Optum Technology. At Optum, he is focused on advancing UnitedHealth Group in several strategic imperatives: Artificial Intelligence with a focus on machine learning and deep learning, IoT, Genomics, and Cybersecurity. Kerrie leads the UnitedHealth Group Fellow, Distinguished Engineer, and Principal Engineer Technical Leadership Career Program. Also, in 2016, Kerrie Holley was conferred a Doctor of Humane Letters from DePaul University, College of Communication / College of Computing and Digital Media.
To Become an Architect
To Become a Systems analyst
