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Citizen Choice Awards: Jay Strickland

By Lisa Mumma
Citizen Journalist

Editor’s note: The following is the third part in a six-part series of profiles on our Citizen Choice Awards honorees. Citizen Choice Awards is an award ceremony that recognizes people who exemplify what it means to be a Garner citizen. This week, we honor Jay Strickland of WingSwept for business.

Jay Strickland

Service over self. As the premise of Rotary Club International, these are also words by which Garner Rotary Club President Jay Strickland lives and leads.

As president and owner of WingSwept Communications, a business he started as a side project while a computer science student at N.C. State University, Strickland is committed to his family and community, forging partnerships and encouraging innovation to benefit the common good.

The Garner-based operation, which employs more than 20 people and serves nearly 2,000 customers across the U.S., WingSwept specializes in providing government services, network support, Web development and vertical marketing to commercial, educational and nonprofit clients. Strickland attributes the success of the company’s reach — not to mention its bottom line — to its team approach toward success.

“I believe in the abilities of our staff,” Strickland said. “They are experts in their field and highly trained to do their jobs well. We have open communication in the office and work together to accomplish tasks.”

Strickland also credits his staff for helping him share his time and talents for the company’s positive impact on the community. As a result, he confidently delegates as he tackles his next feat.

“The WingSwept staff is made up of reliable and hardworking people that are well-equipped to keep WingSwept functioning,” he said. “I have found that everything I do myself denies someone else the opportunity to learn, so I spend a lot of time making sure that our folks have the resources to be successful. I am confident in their abilities to take care of our customers without me being directly involved in every project or task, which allows me more time for my family and community involvement.”

In addition to his Rotary Club activities, Strickland also shares his passion for technology with the Garner Chamber of Commerce. As chairman of the board, Strickland is deemed an integral member by Chamber President Neal Padgett.

“He created and maintains our Web site, quite a generous gift to our group,” Padgett said. “And he and his team design the sharpest online newsletters anywhere. His company is also the first to provide sponsorship to our array of activities.”

A banner ad in current rotation on the Chamber site announces WingSwept’s second annual Technology Spring Cleaning recycling event, set for April 17, 2010, which welcomes unwanted technology material from the community for proper disposal and diversion from landfills. Coinciding with Earth Day celebrations, Strickland said the event fosters community activism by arranging for “the shredding of all hard drives prior to recycling to grant people the peace of mind that their critical information is secure.”

He noted that even with only a 16-day lead time to plan the 2009 event, “we managed to touch many people and collect over 5,000 pounds of technology equipment, an opportunity for face-to-face contact with the community while providing a convenient, much-needed service. ”

“Due to the support of the community, we knew this event had potential to grow exponentially,” Strickland said.

When not designing company Web sites, planning fundraisers for youth scholarships, collecting canned goods for hunger relief or teaching Sunday school, Strickland relaxes in the company of his family and a good book. Inspired by his parents, he relishes titles spanning fiction to business, usually recommendations from friends and peers.

“For fun, I spend time with my wife and daughters, ages 10, 5 and 2,” he said. “I’m also an avid reader and like to finish a new book every 10 days or so.”

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