When Ralph Gootee graduated from Henry E. Lackey High School in 2001, he didn’t have a cell phone. It wasn’t the dark ages though and Gootee always had an interest in computer science with the technology landscape coming into view as the new millennium dawned. 

“They did have technology at Lackey,” he said. “I already knew how to program, I taught myself when I was younger.” In calculus class, students programmed Texas Instruments TI-83 calculators and Gootee used his self-taught skills and those he gleaned at school to land an internship with Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) during his senior year fixing computers for the school system. 

“Lackey gave me a lot of technology opportunities,” he said. 

These opportunities led him to earn a math degree from Salisbury University, a master’s from Johns Hopkins University, a job with Sony during its cell phone heyday, work at Pixar, launch the construction software company PlanGrid — which sold for over $875 million — and recently start another tech company, TigerEye. 

Not bad for a kid from Lackey who ran track, acted in a few school plays and spent free time between classes tinkering with computers and puzzling out programming projects. 

“It is always interesting and exciting to learn about the various paths CCPS students take following graduation as they enter college and the workforce,” Maria V. Navarro, Ed.D., superintendent of schools, said. “Creating opportunities for students while they are in school and allowing them the space and time to engage and explore their interests can lead to them making amazing contributions once they enter the ‘real world.’”

Heading to college
After graduating high school, Gootee first attended the College of Southern Maryland, then Salisbury University, a school where his dad previously attended, and his aunt taught. He briefly attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, but it wasn’t a good fit. He returned to Salisbury and graduated in 2005 with a mathematics degree.

Earning a math degree instead of one in computer science proved fortuitous for Gootee. A teacher at Salisbury noted that while many were pursuing computer science degrees, few were opting for math due to its difficulty. “You get people’s attention with mathematics,” the teacher told him. This advice resonated with Gootee, who found his math degree invaluable throughout his career. “I generally tackled problems that were harder to solve than a regular computer scientist would know how to solve,” he said.

After earning his master’s at Hopkins, Gootee worked there for five years before receiving a call from a friend about an interview with Sony Ericsson in California. At the time, Sony Ericsson was the maker of the most popular cell phone on the market. Gootee figured if nothing else, he’d get a free trip to California, where he could indulge in his favorite hobby, rock climbing.

Once out West, Gootee took the job. Soon after, the iPhone was introduced, and he had a front-row seat as his company struggled against the revolutionary new smartphone. During this period, Gootee took a job at Pixar and attended a memorable cello concert at a punk venue. It was at this concert that he met his future wife, Tracy Young.

This is where fate, kismet, stars aligned — whatever you want to call it — stepped in. Tracy, an advocate for women in the male-dominated tech industry, was in the construction field at the time. She had a vision to digitize paper construction documents and blueprints, wanting to put them on iPads, which, in 2010 had just hit the market. Commercial blueprints are huge, and at the time, iPads were not capable of displaying something of that size. 

The work Gootee was involved with at Pixar at the time could help with that. “I worked on the system that archived and allowed you to view these accurate deep zoom drawings of the initial sketches,” Gootee said. “The drawings are huge and there’s a lot of them, just like blueprints. It’s weird. But the technology was exactly the technology I learned at Pixar. It was a rare, computer graphic, heavily math-oriented technology.”

With co-founders, the couple launched PlanGrid in 2011, and sold it to Autodesk for $875 million in 2018. They recently started TigerEye, which uses AI for sales planning and revenue management. 

The couple and their children visit Maryland a few times a year to catch up with family and friends and Gootee recently spoke at a meeting of the La Plata Rotary Club. 

Skills sought
As members of Generation Z — which the majority of CCPS students are — enter the workforce, Gootee said their need to have soft skills is a must. Soft skills are those like teamwork, communication, adaptability and perseverance. “There’s a lot of soft skills around working,” he said. “The ability to learn, to be managed and be in a workplace.” 

These skills are learned during entry-level jobs often by being around and interacting with other people like co-workers and customers. At jobs where a worker has a bit of independence and may be called on to problem solve or handle a situation on their own. Those jobs are waiting tables, working at a drive-thru window or folding T-shirts. 

“The only way I knew what I wanted to do was by working at Old Navy for my first job, by being a lifeguard, by having a variety of different hands-on jobs, and IT jobs as well. And from there I got more experience,” Gootee said. Very rarely is a person’s first job going to land them in a corner office working on an AI project with an unlimited budget, he said. 

“Don’t let the future get in the way of getting your first job,” he said. “The experience has to start somewhere.”  

About CCPS

Charles County Public Schools provides 27,765 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 38 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership and prepares students for life, careers and higher education.

The Charles County public school system does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its programs, activities or employment practices. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Mike Blanchard, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (students) or Nikial M. Majors, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (employees/ adults), at Charles County Public Schools, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646; 301-932-6610/301-870-3814. For special accommodations call 301-934-7230 or TDD 1-800-735-2258 two weeks prior to the event.  CCPS provides nondiscriminatory equal access to school facilities in accordance with its Use of Facilities rules to designated youth groups (including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts).