By: Jillian Dlouhy –
1995. The year when Ebay was founded, the final Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was published, and the year that Distinguished Alumni James Bowen graduated Southeast.
In March of 2016, Southeast honored six alumni at the Distinguished Alumni Program. Because of Bowen’s outstanding achievement with his company Five Nines, and because of the awards that he has won there, he was one of the alumni selected for this honor.
“I was in my upper thirties when they gave [the award] to me. The people who were selected at the same time were absolutely amazing. But they’re at the end of their careers, and I’m right in the middle of mine [so I hope to get there too],” said Bowen.
Since graduating Southeast, Bowen went to college, got married, and started his own business. He is married to Michelle Bowen and has two kids, Kaden and Alexis. He enjoys every day of being a father and loves singing and playing the guitar with his kids.
When he isn’t with his family, Bowen is busy being the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the company he co-founded- Five Nines Technology Group in Lincoln. His business helps other businesses by working as the IT (information technology) department for them. They usually work for smaller companies that can outsource the work of an IT department, and help those companies overall regarding the functions of their technology, and planning for the future.
Bowen founded Five Nines in 2006, along with Nick Bock. But before they became the face of Five Nines, they each had their own company. Bowen had been self-employed for five to six years, had his own client portfolio, and constantly worked long-hour weeks. Bock also had his own business, but really wanted to start and run a company.
“I had no idea how to get to that point [of becoming a company], but I knew I wanted to,” said Bowen. They figured out that they could help each other to become a bigger business, and eventually merged their businesses together.
To come up with the name of their company, Bowen and Bock ended up looking through old IT terms and came across the “five nines”. This is an IT term for 99.999% uptime, which is used when someone guarantees that a system will be operational most of the time. For Bowen and Bock, this name sounded credible and professional while still fitting their style.
“The five nines of reliability is our mantra that we’re trying to be as high-performing and reliable as possible. Our goal is that our clients’ businesses will have a predictable day,” said Bowen.
Bowen has many fond memories with Five Nines and enjoys always working on projects there. He is excited, along with the rest of the company, about moving into their new building on the south side of Lincoln, in April.
“Putting our brand and our identity into a building that [is] designed for us, that we own… [is] super exciting for us.”
Five Nines has received many awards since their conception. In 2010, Bowen and Bock were named the Small Business Administration’s Nebraska Small Business Person of the year. To receive their award from SBA, Bowen and Bock traveled to Washington D.C.
“[The award is] neat. It’s a solid marble carving of the Washington Monument. It’s one of my favorite things [that] I’ve ever gotten as a recognition,” said Bowen.
Then, in 2014, and for many of the years to follow, Five Nines was named as one of the Best Places to Work in Lincoln. They received this honor because of their employees’ enthusiastic reflections on the company. Plus, in 2015, they were named the Top Managed Service Provider in Nebraska, also ranking 146th globally, and 116th nationally.
During his time at Southeast, Bowen participated in music, tennis, and theater. He sung in many of the choir groups such as Knight Sounds and Ars Nova. Bowen also remembers acting in the school play, Pirates of Penzance. “[Southeast] gave me lots of things I could participate in, which helped me later on. Southeast is great even if you don’t notice it,” said Bowen.
Bowen is extremely happy with what he has accomplished thus far in life. If he could have the chance to change anything, he wouldn’t. He is delighted with where he has come from, and what he has done as a father and as the co-founder of Five Nines. Some of his general goals for Five Nines would be to continue improving the company. “We want to be an important company in the community…we want to [continue to be on the Best Places To Work] year over year. We want to be successful, and be larger,” said Bowen.
Bowen loves his job and believes that it has done well so far. “It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle, and it’s a good lifestyle.”
