This month, Planet Mainframe celebrates influential mainframers nominated by the community. The field benefits from their efforts in making the mainframe what it is today and working towards the mainframe of tomorrow.
Today we showcase the first IBM Champion for the mainframe in Canada.
Reg Harbeck
Chief Strategist, Mainframe Analytics Ltd.
Langley, BC, Canada
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“I got into the mainframe by accident – I didn’t realize I wasn’t already there,” said Reg about his entry into the expansive world of mainframe. “I put on my business card that I had experience ‘from micros to mainframes’ and it was only after being hired as a trainee CICS systems programmer that I discovered that I knew nothing about the IBM mainframe.”
When Reg Harbeck made that bold proclamation on this business card, he had no idea the wheels that would be put into motion in his life as he became a CICS systems trainee. A self-described “Enthusiastic Mainframe Nerd”, Reg has been working in IT and mainframes for over three and a half decades. During that time, he has worked with operating systems, networks, computing security, middleware, applications and platforms ranging from Apple ][+ and MS-DOS PCs to leading edge IBM Z Mainframes.
Reg has written, presented, podcasted, and consulted on mainframe-related matters around the world, visiting every continent but Antarctica, and is very involved in the mainframe culture and ecosystem, including with SHARE, CMG, GSE, NaSPA, IBM TechXchange, and various local user groups.
In his career, Reg spent 13 years at CA Technologies. There he served as a security and mainframe consultant, Mainframe Strategy Owner, Consulting Director, Regional Manager, Business Development Manager, Global Mainframe Practice Manager, and Product Management Director for Mainframe Strategy. In 2011, he left CA to co-found Mainframe Analytics Ltd, where he is the Chief Strategist.
In 2020 IBM recognized Reg’s value to the industry, making him Canada’s first IBM Champion for Z mainframes, an honor that he has received every year since.