“Kevin Mauldin’s younger brother Gary was CEO of Denver-based
La-Z-Boy furniture. When Gary died in 2002 as the result of
complications from an accident, Kevin inherited the CEO’s job and
an IT infrastructure that had been built from scratch by his
technologically talented sibling. Unfortunately, it was such a
patchwork of disparate technologies that no one else could easily
sort it out. Mauldin decided on an IT overhaul, aimed at planting
La-Z-Boy firmly on a Linux foundation.“From the start, Mauldin knew his limitations. ‘I’m a retailer.
I retail furniture,’ he says. ‘My younger brother was a computer
guru. He did all the maintenance, he built the system, he knew
hardware and software…'”