Kerrie L. Holley

Co-patent owner of the computer industry's first SOA method and SOA maturity model, Holley is an IBM Fellow, software architect, author, researcher, consultant, and inventor recognized internationally for his innovative work in architecture and software engineering centered on the adoption of Service Oriented Architecture and APIs. He has served as a Fellow in the Thomas J. Watson Research Center focused on scalable business services and API economy, and previously as a CTO for IBM Global Business Services.

Holley was raised by his maternal grandmother on the South Side of Chicago. While never having met his father and living in a neighborhood marked by poverty and gang activity, he defied social odds by channeling his love for math and science through his academic studies. He 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 current United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and actor Michael Duncan Clarke.

In 1976 he received his B.A. degree in Mathematics from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, followed by a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1982 from DePaul University College of Law. Holley joined IBM in 1986 as an Advisory Systems Engineer, and 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, where he worked with clients to create flexible applications that enabled 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 to IBM Distinguished Engineer and in that same year elected to IBM's Academy of Technology for his sustained contributions in designing high performance financial services applications. He is a co-patent owner of the industry's first SOA method and SOA maturity model, which helps companies develop SOA-based applications and infrastructures. For his work he was recognized as an IBM Fellow, and in 2006 Holley was named to that position—the company's highest technical leadership position. The Fellows program, founded by Thomas J. Watson in 1962, promotes creativity among IBM's most exceptional technical professionals.

His expertise centers around software engineering, architecture, and translating business requirements into designs for cutting-edge network centric distributed solutions with a focus on business and IT fusion. His responsibilities have included technical leadership for service oriented architecture, technical oversight for network centric software engineering projects, adaptive enterprise architecture design, IT strategy, formation of partnerships among clients and vendors, leading architecture reviews, and managing technical risks. Holley is also the holder of several patents ranging from "how to maintain functionality when faced with component failure" to "how to locate lost mobile devices and software engineering patents in service-oriented architecture." He is a co-patent owner of the industry's first SOA development method and first SOA maturity model, which helps enterprises assess where they are on the road to adopting a Service-Oriented Architecture and provides a plan for achieving an SOA-based infrastructure.

In addition to being named a 2006 IBM Fellow, he was awarded "The 50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science," the 2003 "Black Engineer of the Year," the Red Herring 100 Global Award Finalist in 2011, and the "2000 IBM Distinguished Engineer," and he was the first African American to receive this honor. In November 2010 his first book, 100 SOA Questions: Asked and Answered, was published. The book describes how enterprises can adopt Service Oriented Architecture. Holley is widely published in the field and a sought-after speaker and consultant in SOA. His other publications included "Q&A IBM Global Business Services CTO Talks Cloud," "Migrating to a service-oriented architecture," and "Harnessing Data to Fight Crime." His book Is Your Company Ready for Cloud, co-authored with Pam Isom, was released in 2012. He has continued to advocate for education and has served as an adviser for the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University.