Felix Thomas has a knack for being there at the right time. Call it the sweet scent of opportunity, or simply a finely tuned business sense.
The St. Thomas native is president and CEO of Network Security Systems Plus, a network security company he founded in 2001, based in Falls Church, Va.,
Thomas was on island recently to touch base with friends and visit his 99-year-old mother, Iris Beretta Thomas.
After graduating from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1967, Thomas went into the U.S. Army for three years, leaving the service to pursue a technical career at the New York Institute of Technology with a degree in computer science.
He worked in the computer industry in New York for 12 years before moving to California to work on the space shuttle Columbia, followed by consulting work on the business side of the computer industry.
"In 1989 I got my first big break," he says, and it was a break that brought him back home.
"IBM Global Services asked me to take a contract for the Roy L. Schneider Hospital," he says, "I was to meet with Helen Banfield, hospital board chair, in the morning, about installing the new computer system, which would the hospital to the next level of technology."
Though the break was good, the timing was terrible.
"I went down early in the morning," he says, "but no one was talking about anything but Hurricane Hugo, which hit the next day. I just didn’t believe the timing."
"The storm could have been a deterrent," he says, "but I was able to see the project through the renovations, and we eventually got the new computer system installed."
Once the hospital contract was over, Thomas began work on the retail side of things.
"I got a contract with the IBM PC dealer and opened up the Software Factory in Havensight Mall. We moved to Vitraco Mall and then to Raphune Hill, and opened a store on St. Croix.”
In 1999, he says, "I made the most strategic decision of my life, to get out of the retail business.:"
Thomas shut down retail operations, rented out the family’s home and business property and moved back to the states, where he was contracted by IBM Global to install computer networks in historically black colleges of America.
Having finished that contract – again, right time, right place – a casual political conversation in a Falls Church, Va. coffee shop led to Thomas taking a job in the security and information consulting services field, where he had found a new niche.
Within two years he opened up his own company, NSSPlus.
"We started with one employee, James Lopez, who is still with me, and we’ve now grown to 74 employees, several Virgin Islanders," Thomas says.
Education has always been high on Thomas’ list of priorities and he has drawn from a pool of local talent, many of whom he instructed while teaching computer science at All Saints Cathedral at the time he was running his computer business in the 1990’s.
"I wanted to make sure I gave something back to the community," Thomas says. "My philosophy of being a businessman is it’s not just about the money. You can change lives for the better. You do that by training, by providing opportunities for growth. Our company is still small, so you can rise to the top very quickly. The sky’s the limit."
However, Thomas notes, standards in his business are very high.
"A number of certifications are required to do security work, multiple tests of your ability to understand a body of knowledge in 12 security domains. Within the Department of Defense you must be certified."
The company provides network security and information assurance consulting services and products, pioneering solutions for high-profile federal agencies including the Defense Department.
It was recently awarded a contract by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to implement an automated certification and accreditations system.
"It’s is the first major implementation of an automated DOD information Assurance certification and Accreditation support system," Thomas says.
Thomas married Carmen Lans, a CAHS schoolmate he met in New York at a Caribbean Festival. They have five grown children, three of whom work for him.
"My son Sadiyq Karim is our CTO (chief technology officer,) Kwane Thomas is an engineer and our daughter, Kemda Thomas, is director of operations. She runs the company by the book."
Now a youthful 60 years, Thomas says, "I’m not over yet. The culture of the company, is ‘let’s make it happen.’ I have big visions for the company, big contracts."
Thomas, in fact, had to cut his St. Thomas visit short.
"I had to come back for a big proposal for the military," he says. "I had to drop everything to get back and deliver. That’s how you get things done. That’s why I bring young folks in the company to show them you have to go the extra mile; you have to respond to RFP’s (requests for proposals) to be able to compete."