The Davis File
Jeffrey S. Davis
President and CEO
Perficient Inc.
Born: Tulsa, Okla.
Education: Bachelor’s of science in electrical engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia; MBA, Washington University in St. Louis
What was your first job?
I ran a newspaper route when I was 10 for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I collected my pay, and I got a checking account and for 1975, I was making pretty good money for a 10-year-old kid.
Who has been the biggest influence on you and why?
My dad, James. There are a number of things [he taught me], and they are all an offshoot of the same thing. He had an incredibly high level of integrity.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
My mother used to always say, ‘Your sins will find you out.’ I think the best thing I ever learned in my life that I’ve tried to always apply is to do the right thing. I was like any other kid. I was probably about 15 when I finally figured out I can’t lie my way out of trouble. Some kids probably learn younger than that, but I was 15. That was a life lesson that stuck with me.
Who would you like to meet, and what would you want to ask that person?
President Ronald Reagan. How did he manage to muster up as much charisma as he did in the face of a bunch of crappy stuff and a bunch of naysayers? How did he always manage to hold his head up and do the right thing and convey that in an amazingly charismatic way? He connected with people at all levels and from all walks of life in this country. He did a better job of that than any president in my lifetime.
