Earl A. Pace, Jr.

Earl A. Pace, Jr., American businessman and activist, co-founder of the Black Data Processing Associates in 1976.

Earl Pace has been in the Information Technology industry since 1965. He began as a computer programmer trainee at the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). He left the PRR in 1967.

Over the next ten years, he rose through the ranks of programmer, programmer analyst, programming manager to Vice President of a financial telecommunications company in Philadelphia, PA.

He became a business owner in 1976 when he incorporated Pace Data Systems for which he is still president. Pace Data Systems is a full service Information Technology firm providing services through its Philadelphia, PA and Washington, D.C. offices primarily to banks.

In 1975, he co-founded Black Data Processing Associates in Philadelphia and operated as its president for two years. In 1978, he coordinated the formation of BDPA into a national organization and functioned as its First National President until 1980. Black Data Processing Associates has grown into the largest national professional organization representing minorities in the IT industry.

Within BDPA and on a national scale, Earl Pace has been a vocal advocate for business ownership. His primary message since starting BDPA has been that minorities should strive to rise above just a job to Board of Director membership and beyond that to owning and operating their own business.

Earl Pace continues to be active in the business and education community in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore and other cities in which he has business interests that enable him to be present regularly.

In 1997, he received the National Technical Association’s National Technical Achiever Award as Computer Scientist of the Year.

In 2001 and 2002, Black Money Magazine named him as one of the 50 Most Influential African Americans in Information Technology.

He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and pursued graduate studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is married and has one daughter, one son and one granddaughter.

References

* [http://www.betf.org/about/about.html "BETF"]