Glenn Rolader, Ph.D.

When we started IS4S at the beginning of 2008, we had no idea of the challenges we faced, but we also had no idea of the excitement and fulfillment of building a company together. We have had to learn and adapt a lot since we started, but from the beginning, we have been guided by three simple core beliefs.

1. Ethics Over Profit
   First, we believe it is always right to do the right thing. As an employee-owned company, we are not controlled by outside shareholders, which allows us to make decisions based on what is best for both our customers and our employees. It has been exciting to see that as we have kept our focus on doing the right thing, all other aspects of success have followed. 

2. Speed with Discipline
   Second, we believe that rapid technology advances are continually creating opportunities to integrate emerging technologies into innovative system solutions, which explains our name: Integrated Solutions for Systems. While some of our efforts involve fundamental research and development, much of our company remains focused on leveraging and integrating emerging technologies to provide our customers with innovative solutions. This integration focus relies heavily on digital engineering.

3. Real Employee Ownership & Control
   Third, and most important, we believe in “real” employee ownership. Many of us have experienced the culture, excitement, and success of high-tech, entrepreneurial companies. As such, we are proud that more than 95% of our full-time employees are “owners.” However, to us, ownership is not just owning stock. Ownership means that every employee is equally valuable, individual opinions and advice are always important, and it’s our obligation to continually grow the company to provide new opportunities for all our employees. Many of our best ideas, new markets, and several of our company’s polices were proposed and developed by employee-owners.

   Also, we believe employee-ownership means empowering employees down to the working level. Sometimes our distributed approach to management and execution is not the most efficient, but it creates and maintains our culture of “real employee ownership” and entrepreneurship. Finally, we believe employee-ownership means all employees, from senior management to the most recent new hire, are “workers” committed to the success of our customers and employees. As such, our goal is that everyone “does his and her part.”

When we started the company with a single customer, we didn’t know if the company would succeed. However, as we stayed committed to our three core beliefs, we have been amazed at how much we have been blessed. Since our founding, our revenue, profit, number of customers, and number of employees have grown significantly every year! Just in the last two years, our revenue has increased by almost 400%. More importantly, we continue to add both talented, well-respected employee owners and quality customers that focus us on challenges of national importance. 

I am blessed to lead such a talented team of co-owners working with such quality customers. I want to personally thank all our employees and customers for our success. I continue to be humbled to have the opportunity to be part of such a talented group of employees. I am excited to see what God has in the future for our company as we strive to always do the right thing, integrate new technologies into innovative system solutions, and maintain and expand our employee-ownership culture. 

Thanks for visiting our website!

Glenn Rolader, Ph.D.
IS4S, President and CEO