With over 20 years under her belt at High Touch, Oweda Martinez has worked with a lot of people on a lot of projects.
Her career at High Touch began back in 1998 when a couple of former coworkers told her about an open position. One of them happened to be applying at High Touch as well, and the other was the son-in-law of former High Touch President Lyle Jones.
“Over the years, I’ve been part of many fun projects,” says Oweda.
“I remember, back in the day, completing hardware rollouts for large clients in our old building where we had employees line out of the building in a human assembly line, passing printers from the back of the truck, into the building, and lining them up down the hall. I’ve also worked on some big software conversion projects that have helped long-time clients move from our older legacy software to our cynergi|suite RTO software.”
Managing Projects, Old and New, Big and Small
Fast-forward to 2021, Oweda recently moved to a new Project Manager position in High Touch’s Project Management Office. “My new role has enabled me to work with more people in our company, and that’s one of the best parts of my job,” states Oweda. “Not only do I get to manage projects on the rent-to-own side of the business, which I’ve done for years, but I get to help manage projects for our other business units as well.”
Always Learning
When asked who or what she’d haunt if she were a ghost, Oweda said she’d visit past teachers, not for vengeance for hours in detention, but to thank them for helping shape her education. “Some of them nominated me to get tested into different schools and classrooms that were at higher levels so that I could be challenged, states Oweda. “From there, I could work hard and excel.”
Oweda has kept the learning mindset throughout her career at High Touch. Even in her most recent position and after being with the company for over 20 years, she’s always discovering something new. “I’m learning new things and meeting more of our customers that I didn’t have the same opportunity to meet in the past. Just the other day, I spoke to a Dallas customer who had been with High Touch since before the company acquired UniComData in 1993.”
Going the Extra Mile
Oweda goes above and beyond in her work—she feels like to help everyone around her be successful, she needs to be successful herself. “My goal is to one day retire from High Touch,” jokes Oweda. “One day…but to get there, we’ll all need to be successful together. At the end of the day, I don’t want our customers to feel like they have outstanding issues. If they need help, I can walk them through resolving the problem. If I can’t help, I know there’s someone on my team that can. I love helping people, I love the people I work with, and at the end of the day, that’s why I love my job.”
12 Things You Might Not Know About Oweda Martinez
As part of our Employee Spotlight interview, we ask a series of lighthearted questions to highlight the unique, diverse personalities that make our High Touch team great. Like many other High Touch employees, Oweda would love to find a way to automate laundry. She also doesn’t think that a hot dog qualifies as a sandwich and enjoys spending time volunteering at her son’s daycare.
If you could move to any other High Touch market, which one would you choose?
I love Wichita, so it would be hard to move. I think Kansas City would be close enough not to feel too far away from home.
If you could jump into a pool of anything of your choosing, what you fill it with?
Water…I’m only jumping into water!
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
No, a hot dog does not qualify as a sandwich.
Who or where would you haunt if you were a ghost?
I would be a friendly ghost. I would visit past teachers and thank them for the help in shaping my education. Some of them nominated me to get tested into different schools and classrooms at higher levels to be challenged.
What was your first job?
A receptionist at a law firm (first with a real paycheck). The summer before that, my grandpa paid me, and I worked with him to remodel one of his rental homes, and I would help him with his lawn. That was fun and taught me all about how hard work pays off. He retired early from Boeing at 56, and he just turned 90 in January.
Does a cyclops wink or blink?
Blinks.
What’s something you wish you could automate?
Laundry.
Do you have any pets or kids?
I have two kids, O’Mara and Odin.
Do you do any volunteer or community service work?
I volunteer at my son’s daycare for their parties and field trips, now that they’ve been able to start back up!
Would you rather go 30 days without your phone or three months with no dessert?
Three months with no dessert.
Do you have any superstitions?
I don’t like to step on the grates on the sidewalks/streets downtown (or anywhere) — this started when I was younger. 2 reasons. First, I don’t want it to fall in the one time I walk across it. Secondly, the biggest reason, I’ve always thought someone might be standing under it looking up. Creeps me out!! I always step around them.
You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant?
In the spirit of entrepreneurship, I guess I’d have to have a little petting zoo and let people have rides on the elephant. Hopefully, it makes a lot of money, because I’m sure it would take a lot to take care of.
Bringing the Human Touch to Technology.
Thank you, Oweda, for everything you do for High Touch!