DALE ROYAL:
 
Dale Royal




 
 
 
 
 
Chairman and CEO at Unitask Software in Bloomfield Hills. Unitask creates, sells, and supports software products based on experience gained from over a decade of Oracle E-Business Suite implementation projects and automates manual tasks for Oracle software users. Under Royal's leadership, gaining new Oracle E-Business Suite customers has led Unitask to record growth in the past year. The company recently consolidated its operations and now employs 18 people, tripling its staff and revenue. Unitask moved its headquarters from Israel to Cleveland and now to Michigan after it received a $250,000 investment from Automation Alley. The company has also received funding from Draper Triangle Ventures of Pittsburgh and Cleveland-based Early Stage Venture Partners. Unitask received the Best of Business Award in the computer software and accessories category from the Small Business Commerce Association. Unitask's installed base includes customers in North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, and the Middle East. Unitask serves companies in industrial supply and manufacturing, computers and equipment, construction and engineering, and utilities and energy. Previously, Royal was CEO and founder of Coeum Software and also was an executive at Veritas Software, Sistina, and Sequent Computer Systems. He received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Central Michigan University.


WHERE BORN: “Saginaw.”

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS: “My stepdad. He was a really terrific guy who had an incredible unique talent -- he never met a stranger. He was a prominent vice president of his company and had the wonderful ability to remember that everyone has a story and if you listen, it's interesting and intriguing.”

LAST BOOK READ: “Daniel Silva's Moscow Rules.”

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE ME: “Focused, determined, and empathetic.”

WHERE MY FIELD/INDUSTRY IS HEADED: “Our company pushes through with an emphasis on driving automation. We get the mundane, 'no-value-added' out of your life. The industry is trying to eliminate mundane and make it easy for you. The iPad and iPhone have a great user experience because they take what we really need and make it easier to use and give better access. What we do is help businesses automate. Some say generically that our industry is headed for cloud or convergence, and I'd vary that and say the industry is moving to focus incredible attention on user experiences, so everything is easy to use without training classes. Information will present itself to you instead of you going to find it.”

FAVORITE TECHNOLOGICAL GADGET: “I'm stuck on my iPad right now. It's a really cool gadget. I love to read and having music and pictures - one device lets me do all of that. It's just a fun gadget.”

FAVORITE PLACE: “Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman. I'm a water guy.”

FAVORITE HOBBIES: “Golf. I love to see how many golf balls I can lose in a day.”

FAVORITE FOOD: “Chilean sea bass.”

MY HIDDEN TALENT: “I'm a musician and nobody knows it. I can play several instruments.”

HOW I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED: “I made a difference. One hundred years from now, I would like my family and people who worked for me to say 'he was a good guy and made a difference for us.' That doesn't mean money but putting yourself into giving back to someone.”


Grant Thornton Website At the annual awards reception in April 2014, one Leader & Innovator from the previous 12 months will be selected as the Grant Thornton Leader & Innovator of the Year.