Brian DeMeulle Ends Career on a High Note
By Mark Hersberger
Brian DeMeulle remembers his introduction to computing in seventh grade, when he was 11 going on 12. Little did he know at the time that he would forge a decades-long career as an IT manager before he retires this summer from his role as Executive Director, Enterprise Architecture and Infrastructure.
He got started with an Altair 8800. Brian remembers the junior high science teacher picking one up and asking students if they wanted to try it out. They went in early before classes started, first to build the unit, then input code - all zeros and ones.
Later the school acquired an IBM Teletype machine, which was basically a typewriter with electronics built in. However, the class could connect to the mainframe at UC Irvine and learn basic programming.
In high school, Brian and his brother took to hanging around the local junior college. They crashed late-afternoon computer classes, and self-taught themselves programming languages.
“I liked doing new things, and that was extremely new,” Brian recalls. “Nobody else was doing that. And so it was interesting. It was brain stimulating.”
So, after graduating high school, of course Brian set off to college to earn a degree in the nascent field of computer science.
Except, he didn’t.
Those who know Brian know that he has a passion for music. He first went to a junior college, started taking music classes, and was hooked. “After going to a few music classes I knew that, yeah, this is what I wanted to do,” Brian explains. “Computer science just wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. Music is what I loved.”
The stakes were raised when his parents got wind of his direction. “When I told my parents, my Dad’s response was to encourage me to have something to fall back on,” Brian explains. “And so for me, I took that as a challenge to make it work.”
From the junior college, Brian spent a year at Cal State Fullerton, then made his way to Long Beach State. He recalls, “By the time I was 21, I was playing in clubs and orchestras and making quite a bit of money and I wasn’t done with school yet.”
Brian graduated with a degree in percussion performance, then headed to USC for a Master’s in percussion, all the while playing professionally. At that point he was set to embark on a long career in the L.A. music scene.
Except, he didn’t.
“I decided I didn’t want to live in L.A. and do the music rat race,” Brian recalls of his change of heart. “So I thought, maybe I’ll be a professor.”
At that point, things came full circle with his father. He recounts, “What’s funny was, I had proved to my Dad that I could make a pretty decent living as a professional musician when I decided to go back to school and become a professor. The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Well, what about the music?’”
Brian returned to Long Beach to resume courses, and a friend ended up steering him to a philosophy lecture. “Five minutes into the class and I said to myself, ‘Oh, this is it,’” Brian remembers.
He set off to the University of Memphis to pursue a Ph.D., all the while continuing to play music - including gigs on the city’s famous Beale Street. To supplement his fellowship he also started teaching basic computer end user classes.
Around that time, a major life event occurred, compelling Brian to re-prioritize. He ultimately discontinued the PhD program without graduating.
Still in Memphis, Brian jumped head first into the tech field, taking jobs in service and training. This was all during the first dotcom boom of the late 1990s, and Brian remembers getting promotions and raises and switching jobs every six months or so.
Eventually Brian’s wife at the time decided she wanted to move back to California, so they settled in Santa Rosa. Brian had a few different jobs there, but another life event necessitated moving to San Diego. He tried to work remotely and split time, but it wasn’t working out for him or his employer. Brian worked out a severance and became a free agent.
It was now 2004, and Brian, a single dad raising his son, had competing offers: one from Qualcomm and one from UC San Diego. Qualcomm offered double the money, but UC San Diego offered the kind of work-life balance he knew he needed. Brian said, “So I picked UC San Diego because I knew I’d be able to be a dad, do the stuff I needed to do, and still have a job. And that has proven repeatedly to be the right decision for me.”
Brian’s first job was to manage IT for the former Auxiliary and Plant Services. Over the next 20 years he took on several roles, including managing operations for parking and transportation, consolidating IT units within the newly formed RMP VC area, managing IFIS, then eventually heading up infrastructure in the former Administrative Computing and Telecommunications department. When IT Services came together in late 2015, Brian continued his role managing infrastructure and operations, and was even the interim Chief Information Security Officer.
Every time Brian got comfortable, a fresh challenge came along. Through the many role changes, Brian has remained faithful to a guiding principle that he passes on to others as advice. ”In all the work situations you encounter, and the decisions you have to make, think about what is in the best interest of the organization as a whole before making the decision,” he explains. “Not what’s best for you; not what’s best for your specific department, but what’s best for the entire organization. Make your decisions with that kind of focus, and everything will be OK.”
Brian’s fellow IT leaders recognize his impact and contributions along the way. “I have always been amazed at the depth and breadth of knowledge Brian has, both in areas of technology and leadership theory,” said Sheryl Gerbracht, Director of the IT Business Office. “He is passionate about advancing the leadership of others and has been a mentor both inside and outside UC San Diego. He has built an incredible network at UC San Diego which we all counted on to help us navigate a difficult discussion with a customer. For me personally, he has been a trusted colleague providing sound guidance, a listening ear and a bit of humor when I was faced with professional challenges.”
I’ll Be There for You
Chris Ranglas and Emerson Bartolome both worked in Auxiliary and Plant Services when Brian started in 2004. He made an immediate impression.
“Early on we saw all the gifts he had,” Chris remembers. “It was so easy for him to go into conversations with the technical community or the business community. And he always, always facilitated the conversations in kind of a roundtable format. And I think through that roundtable format, people felt very, very comfortable. All the meetings we had were very productive because Brian set the tone that everyone in the meeting mattered.”
Chris and Emerson both stress how much they learned from Brian, and grew under his mentorship. “I really admire Brian’s leadership,” Emerson says. “He taught me a lot, and I always thought, when I become a manager, I want to lead by his example.” Emerson cites the way Brian pushed him in new directions, but also provided leeway to figure things out on his own.
Emerson also remembers lasting advice he received. “Brian always advised me to never be part of the storm,” he explains. “Don’t get sucked into the chaos and drama. Take a step back to look at what’s actually going on and learn from it. And that has always stuck with me. That’s the kind of advice I’m going to miss getting from Brian.”
For his part, Chris remembers what he learned about the university landscape. “Brian had so much experience that he knew what things mattered and what things didn’t,” he says. “He had all these aspirations, and he did a great job marketing his ideas and explaining them. But he also explained to me that we could only move as fast as the university would allow. So I learned from Brian a ton about the push and pull of working through university projects. And, he never once said that he couldn’t get funding. The great thing about working with Brian is that, if he had an idea, he’d find the money for it. He was also very confident about his vision and the direction he was going.”
The connections Chris and Emerson forged with Brian are deep and personal. Brian was a guest at Emerson’s wedding. At one point, Chris left UC San Diego to work in the private sector, but came back a few years later…specifically to work under Brian again.
It wasn’t only Brian’s professional demeanor that left an impression. Chris, Emerson and some of the younger staff members marveled at Brian’s ability to succeed as a parent and professional, and squeeze in his many extracurricular activities - surfing, aikido, cooking, traveling, music. “We’d watch Brian from afar and just wonder, ‘How does he do all that?” Chris recalls. “He made it look so easy.” Chris even compared the situation to a Friends episode in which the male characters become enamored with Monica’s older, cooler boyfriend, played by Tom Selleck.
Investing in Inclusive Excellence
One of Brian’s passions is inclusive excellence. He has participated in UC San Diego’s Leaders in Equity Advancement and Diversity (LEAD) Program, completed a program at the Social Justice Training Institute, and earned a Diversity Equity and Inclusive certificate from Cornell University.
“As far back as my PhD program, I was reading up on the philosophy of race,” Brian recalls, even stating that as a draw of the Memphis program. “It was part of a unique program that I was part of. However, the lessons didn’t really sink in at the time, but I always found it a fascinating topic. But I began to re-acquaint myself with it in 2017 or 2018. Then as part of the LEAD Program here, you commit to being a resource for the campus and promoting inclusive excellence and equity advancement.”
Alongside Ynez Hicks, Crys Harris, Ronise Zenon, James Seddon, and Declan Fleming, Brian was part of the group that started up IT Services’ Inclusive Excellence Forum. The purpose is to bring staff together to read books and articles and engage in challenging, thought-provoking conversations.
“We wanted to establish a place within ITS where certain conversations are not just allowed, but welcomed,” Brian explains. “It’s an opt-in, educational forum to educate our staff on various topics in the diversity, equity and inclusion space.”
Of the Forum, Sheryl comments, “It is significant and important to have senior leadership in an organization embrace and promote inclusive excellence. Through Brian’s leadership, most units in IT Services held ‘Race Talks’ - sessions designed to help groups talk about difficult topics, including race relations. The Inclusive Excellence Forum has explored topics in addition to anti-racism such as gender equity, LGBTQ justice, neurodivergence, political advocacy and how to use job descriptions and job postings to attract diverse candidate pools. The information shared in the Forum is very rich and thought-provoking and the conversations insightful. Everyone in IT Services should attend!”
Career Coda
The time has come for Brian to head in a new direction. He cites a variety of reasons, starting with a commitment he made to himself about 10 years ago to remain at UC San Diego until he turned 60, then reevaluate things.
Well, he turned 60 last year, so now is the time. “Who I am is not a tech person,” Brian explains. “Can I work in technology effectively, yes. But I think my biggest contribution hasn’t been technical knowledge or skills. It’s been because I know how to work with people, and the people have been great. And especially with me having transitioned into a senior management role, I’ve been able to provide the right environment and support for all the great technical staff and the things they do. So doing all that has probably been the best part of my career.”
He continues, “My soul is in playing music. And actually my philosophy interests are very connected with my work in social justice. So I feel like I’m blessed to have the stability and opportunity to go and do more of the things that make me, me.”
Brian will carve out time for family, too, including his wife; 86-year-old father; and adult son Nicholas, who lives in San Diego.
When he begins life as a retiree, Brian is looking forward to a slower, more relaxed pace of life, saying, “Instead of waking up and getting on Zoom, I’m going to wake up and go to the beach.”