As a consultant for Workday, Justin Lonis ’14 is working to make the recording and reporting systems of colleges and universities more streamlined and efficient with software. Workday is a leader in the area of cloud-based enterprise systems, notably for finance and human resources functions, but Lonis works to match their systems with the needs of institutions of higher education. “My current role brings new challenges every day in an emerging market where the work I’m doing is pioneering how users will adopt new higher education workflows and processes,” he says.

Lonis has gravitated toward working with customer relationship management systems since he graduated from Hiram College. After earning his bachelor’s degree in both accounting and communication, he went to work for CardinalCommerce, a subsidiary of Visa. Lonis then gained the position of finance manager at Case Western Reserve University, where he managed the reporting of university funds to assist top-level staff and administrators. Using his skills in technology and accounting, Lonis was able to analyze the financial data for the Office of the Provost and implement cost-saving processes. Along the way to his current role at Workday, Lonis also founded the app-developing firm ClosestPath and gained a graduate faculty member position at Cleveland State University at the Monte Ahuja College of Business.

Lonis is appreciative of the connections he made with his fellow Hiram students and his faculty members due to the small class sizes. The relationships he built and the lessons he learned as a member of a tight-knit community have carried with him into the workplace, particularly lessons in how to be an effective team member. By taking courses across multiple academic disciplines, Lonis feels he can view projects from different perspectives and tackle problems creatively.