todd hill
Todd R. Hill
1967-2001

Todd Hill was an account executive with QRS Corporation.  He passed away September 11, 2001 when the Towers fell.  Todd was staying on the 17th floor of the Marriott Hotel at the World Trade Center when terrorists hijacked and crashed two planes into the towers.

Todd’s parents and friends established a scholarship in his honor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  His employer, QRS Corporation established an annual employee award called the Todd Hill Award that went to the employee who best exemplified the spirit of QRS.

In 2004 my employer, Inovis, acquired QRS.  As a part of the deal I became the General Manager of QRS’ New York City EDI Service bureau.  Inovis continued the annual Todd Hill award.  The conference room was named after Todd and a beautiful portrait in oil paint was featured in the main conference room.  In 2005 the Service Bureau was divested and relocated to Georgia.  Before the sale was completed, my CEO directed me to have a high quality copy made of Todd’s portrait while the original was shipped to Todd’s parents in Boston. Inovis continued the tradition of the annual Todd Hill award.  In 2010 Inovis was acquired by GXS.  GXS continued the tradition with the GXS Humanitarian and Todd Hill Award for the outstanding community service efforts of one employee with a cash award and a matching contribution to the non-profit charity of the award winner’s choice.

GXS was acquired by OpenText in 2014.  I do not know if this tradition has been continued, but I sincerely hope it has.

By John Mecke

John is a 25 year veteran of the enterprise technology market. He has led six global product management organizations for three public companies and three private equity-backed firms. He played a key role in delivering a $115 million dividend for his private equity backers – a 2.8x return in less than three years. He has led five acquisitions for a total consideration of over $175 million. He has led eight divestitures for a total consideration of $24.5 million in cash. John regularly blogs about product management and mergers/acquisitions.