Management Staff Biographies

A Top 40 Under 40 alum and winner of numerous awards and accolades, Shakil Ahmed is the both the founder and chief executive officer at PDC Systems.

An incredibly diligent and hard working person, Shak (as he is more commonly referred to), was never in it for the money. When he first established PDC Systems in 1992, he worked long hours building computers out of his house with no employees and revenues of under $20,000. Besides a deep passion for technology, Shak enjoyed being an entrepreneur, along with the perks (and challenges) that came with it.

For the next 19 years, Shak has evolved PDC Systems (which stands for Personally Designed Computers) from its roots creating only high performance file servers and workstations to now providing complete IT solutions for a number of companies in various fields. Despite PDC's tremendous growth, Shak has never strayed from his core philosophy of always taking care of customers, no matter what. As PDC finds itself near the end of another year, Shak remains just as passionate about his "job" as in those early days, constantly striving to perform beyond the expectations of his clients, competitors, and himself.

Brandy is the lead technician at PDC and is responsible for the other technicians, essentially making him a "tech" for the techs. Tasked with taking care of PDC's long-term contracts and keeping the technicians in line, he often relies on his 17+ years of experience within the industry and his constant but ever-growing interest in technology.

Brandy's proclivity for computers started relatively early, as he took interest in technology both in his free time and when he started working. He started a two-line BBS in high shool was self-taught in the programming languages Java and C++. After moving to Hawaii in 1995 to attend UH, he got a student job working for the Information Technology Systems department. It was while working for the school that he first became acquainted with PDC when the company received the contract to provide hardware for the UH systems. Brandy began working for PDC in 1997 as a part-timer, primarily working on the company's website and designing custom PCs.

With PDC now for 15 years, Brandy still retains his desire to always get his hands on the latest electronic "toys". As an avid triathlete, he spends most of his free time outdoors - hiking, running, cycling or wrenching on his car.

A field service engineer for PDC since 2007, Scott deals with company clients face-to-face on a regular basis. His workday usually consists of onsite support at a client's office or home, creating proposals, following up with clients to ensure that their systems work, managing various projects, as well as performing damage control.

Scott's passion for computers started very young, and he fondly recalls when he first began writing BASIC programs as a 12-year old in middle school. To impress his friends, he would write a program that resembled a bank login and would then pretend to "hack" into that bank.

Scott enjoys working at PDC because of the clients and coworkers, or in his words, "pretty much everything about it." In his spare time, Scott enjoys watching Hulu TV, anything Google related, and is a big fan of Japanese anime.

Gary got his start in technology 25 years ago when he took a high school class for the Apple 2E, and he's loved computers ever since. He recently migrated to PDC after a lengthy employment with CompUSA, serving as a Technical Service and Sales Manager for their stores in Honolulu and Pearl Highlands before the company shut down both Hawaii stores.

With PDC since 2008, Gary's job as a sales and service manager mainly consists of designing, building, implementing and maintaining networks and domains for PDC's many corporate clients. Because of the extensiveness and complexity of his work, Gary is proactive in his preparations for each individual job, for each individual company, as soon as he starts his day. When not at work, Gary is a hardcore gamer, cook and dedicated husband.