Distinguished Engineer Citations

                 

Chris Burchett

Distinguished Engineer

2016

Degree

Computer Science – 1990

 

Citation

At Time of Nomination in 2016

Chris Burchett serves as Executive Director for Client Security Software Engineering at Dell, Inc. In this role, he is responsible for innovation, engineering and delivery of Dell’s Enterprise Endpoint Security business; a business based on the company he founded and subsequently sold to Dell.

Born and raised in Kirksville, Missouri, Burchett graduated from Kirksville Senior High School as salutatorian of his class in 1985. That fall he enrolled at Texas Tech University. While at Tech, he performed in musicals and operas produced by the University and played leading roles such as Candid in Bernstein’s “Candid” and Hero in “Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum.” In 1990, he graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Music.

Upon graduation, Burchett married his wife of 25 years, Susan Burchett and the two moved to the Dallas area where he began work at E-Systems Garland Division (now part of Raytheon). While at E-Systems, Burchett worked as an embedded software engineer developing control systems and diagnostic expert systems for special purpose hardware interfacing Cray Supercomputers in Top Secret programs. Later he developed unclassified medical image processing software to fully digitize medical imaging through large scale Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS).

In 1994, Burchett joined i2 Technologies where he developed intelligent supply chain management solutions using artificial intelligence algorithms. While he was there, i2 grew from $4M to $1B in revenue and he rose from lead developer to architect and then to Director of Research and Development. He earned a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University in 1997 and led teams that delivered the company's intelligent supply-demand matching and order fulfillment products.

In 2001, Burchett left i2 to be the founding Vice President of Engineering and later the Chief Technology Officer of Credant Technologies, a company focused on enabling enterprises to control the security of their data on mobile devices and in the cloud. In 2007, Credant was ranked #15 on INC 500’s “Fastest Growing Companies” with over 5500% growth rate. Credant also became a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection before partnering with and later being acquired by Dell. While at Credant, Burchett was responsible for product strategy and all product delivery activities including product architecture, engineering, product management, quality assurance, release management and security certifications.

Since the acquisition by Dell, Burchett’s business has grown more than 800%. At Dell, he works with other technology and business leaders to set the strategy for Dell’s future security products for areas such as Advanced Threat Protection, Next Generation Data Security, Encryption and Key Management, Security Analytics, IOT, Wearables and Enterprise Mobility Management. He has been awarded more than 10 patents with several patents pending, serves on the Texas Tech Computer Science Advisory Board and is an occasional conference speaker.

Burchett and his wife live in Lewisville, Texas, and have two sons and one daughter. He serves at First United Methodist Church Carrollton in leadership committees and as worship leader, keyboardist, vocalist and Sunday School teacher for adult, college and youth. Over the last 10 years he has been on numerous overseas and local mission trips focused primarily on serving orphans and others in need. He and his wife support many charities focused on orphans, veterans, conservation, medical care, missions work and the arts. He also enjoys mentoring young people through his church and his work.

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