You might love the Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform, but do you know the people who make it possible? Talented Plexians have been working hard behind the scenes for decades. They’re what make this company great, but few get the chance to step into the spotlight they deserve – until now. This month, say hello to Director of Support Services Jeff Bugayong.

Tell us about your role at Plex.

I help lead a global team of Support Services Representatives. We are the first line of contact for customer issues and handle Break-Fix customer issues. We work in parallel with Development, Product Management, Technical Services, and Professional Services to help navigate the customer journey.

What do you love most about your job?

The people in Support Services are a highly technical and social group. It is always a pleasure to be working with a team of smart, passionate, and fun folks. I also like the fact that I can effect change and watch the company grow into a true global, best-in-class organization.

Your favorite Plex memory is:

Boot camp. Back in 2013, boot camp was a 3-week experience. I flew into the Troy headquarters and got to meet all my teammates. After-hours and on weekends, the out-of-towners would spend the evenings discovering the greater-Detroit area. On one of the weekends, however, we drove to Chicago for the single task of tasting a Chicago-style deep dish pizza.

How will technology make the world smarter in the next 10 years?

We are already at a point where we are generating a lot of data. We are already in the process of using this data to make decisions in our business and our daily lives. I believe the next 10 years will just be getting smarter on how the data drives the decisions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already in the B2C community. This will really grow and be commonplace in the B2B industry in 10 years.

Where are you located?

Southern California.

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Ward Cleaver from Leave It to Beaver. I thought it would be great to be a dad who always knew the right answer and would never lose his cool no matter the situation.

What are your favorite things to do on the weekend?

Relax. Spend time with the family. Dinner and dancing.

Tell us about the best vacation you ever went on.

Paris, France. My wife and I were celebrating our 25th anniversary and, up until then, we had never done anything more than dinner and a movie for anniversary celebrations. Although we had lunch in the Eiffel Tower and got to see the Louvre and Notre Dame (the year before it caught on fire), we spent most of the time dining outside at the Cafes, watching the world go by while sipping house wine and eating local cuisine. We never used an alarm clock, which was our only real goal of the trip.

Three musical artists or bands you never get sick of are:

Billy Joel, Journey, and Taylor Swift.

Learn more about the people of Plex, discover the values we stand by, and catch the latest company news right here.