Forty Under 40: Chad Hinton

Inspired in the seventh grade by a book about early computers, Chad Hinton, now 39, decided technology sounded like fun. It also got him out of gym class.

A native of Rock Island, Ill., Hinton attended Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman University). He went to work for J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. in 1986 as a log clerk and later transferred to the information technology department.

Hinton helped the carrier convert to a mainframe computing system and eventually became the lead person in Hunt’s networking group. He helped design the firm’s networks for external communications.

Hinton left to become a senior consultant for local startup Sable Technology, but by the time it was bought out by Edgewater, he was tired of traveling. He did IT consulting for onboard electronics supplier Rockwell International and recycler Safety Kleen before getting involved with application development for Millennia Systems in Rogers.

He was part of the crew that ventured out to form VeriSource, the Fortune 500-scale IT firm for mid-sized companies. His department has grown to 13 people.

A member of local safety and target shooting club ICORE, he also helped Valutek create a resilient gift card processing system.