Reporter Volume 25, No.10 November 4, 1993

By EVE HOLBERG
Reporter Contributor

For UB Trustee Council member David N. Campbell, steering a successful
business is like traveling.
	"It's as if you were traveling across a continent and every
time you have to learn a new language," says the chairman and CEO of
Computer Task Group, a Buffalo-based information services firm. The
27-year-old company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It has
4,200 employees in 65 locationsQQmost of which are in the United
States. Its mission is to help its clients apply technology in
automation, communication and information systems.
	Campbell was appointed by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to fill the
council seat of the late M. Robert Koren, who served for many years on
the council and as its chair.
	To stay ahead of his competitors in this highly competitive
field, Campbell has to have learned many of these euphemistic
languages during his 25 years with CTG. And although he is a native
Western New Yorker, Campbell has traveled far and wide on business. In
fact, he missed his first council meeting because he was out of the
country.
	"I was on the Institute of Management Development traveling in
Eastern and Western Europe assessing cultural differences and business
opportunities," he explains.
	Campbell graduated from Niagara UniversityQQwhich he also
serves as a trusteeQQwith a B.S. in mathematics and moved on to study
for a master's in operations research in night school at UB while he
began his career. He worked for IBM from 1963 to 1968, where he worked
in the technical and marketing ends of the business.
	With his math degree, Campbell was a natural for technical
work, and he surprised even himself by getting into marketing. "I
never dreamed I'd ever do that," he says. But, he adds, "I found the
time in marketing to be very informative."
	So informative, in fact, that the experience continues to
serve him.
	"The significant part is having the skills to solve a
problem," he said. "I looked at it in two parts: motivation and
analysis. Bringing people to accept your solution is the hardest part.
It's a little bit of showmanship."
	The challenge is not just getting people to accept a solution,
he says, but getting them to follow "with vigor."
	"There's a tremendous amount of satisfaction in actually
guiding change," he says. "It's a scary but satisfying thing."
	Campbell began working at CTG in 1968, when both CTG and the
computer business were still in their infancy. The computer business
was just beginning to expand and many new applications for the
technology were beginning to be developed.
	"The vision was that there would be an information services
industry," he says. "Even then it seemed there would be new ways to
apply these."
	And, he notes, although "there were many firms failing then,"
he was fairly certain he was onto something that would support himself
and his young family. "At the time, I had so much confidence."
	He adds that he felt he could afford to look around a little
bit before settling down with one company.
	He never looked further.
	Campbell describes himself as an incurable optimistQQ"it's my
greatest weakness"QQand says he's had a lot of fun rising to the top
of this $300 million publicly traded international corporation. But,
he adds, it's been hard work, too: "It's a very hard job, running a
business."
	He was appointed president of the company in 1979, and in 1984
became CEO.
	As he guides the company, he says part of the challenge is
knowing what he doesn't know. "You know that you don't know," he says.
"You're also hoping to give it your best shot. But effort doesn't
count.
	"I look at every decision as if: do I know enough? Who can I
talk to?"
	He continues to look at the problems of the business in terms
of what he learned when he worked in marketing: Analysis and
motivation. And he works to create an atmosphere which fosters
accomplishment. "I think I'm an environment creator," he says.
	To stay on top of the field, Campbell finds he reads a lot and
travels to the far corners of the globe to see for himself what
business opportunities might exist.
	"The environment changes so dynamically, you have to have
sensors out," he says. "I travel a lot for business. I see people. It
creates an exposure."
	He manages to stay in touch with the office through the
company's digital voice exchange, or DVX, as well as by
telecommunicating with a laptop computer andQQwhen paper absolutely
must change handsQQwith overnight mail services.
	"There's really not much reason to feel removed" from the
office, he says.
	Campbell makes an effort to keep up with more than only the
news generated by the business world. "There's not much news that
doesn't affect us all," he says.
	Through his community and educational service, Campbell finds
a way to shareQQand to absorb moreQQexperience and knowledge about the
world. For example, he notes, his activity in state-level economic
advisory organizations is useful not only to himself, but can be
helpful as well to the university. For example, he has served on the
board of the New York State Science and Technology Foundation for the
past decade and "that experience may be beneficial to UB."
	Campbell also is a member of Gov. Mario Cuomo's Council on
Fiscal and Economic Priorities and is a regional vice chairman of the
Business Council of New York State.
	These experiences will help Campbell help UB, he believes. He
wants to help support President William Greiner on what he calls UB's
"aggressive mission."
	"I was anxious to support Bill Greiner," Campbell says. "My
sense of my job is to help him be as effective as he can be."
	Campbell feels, too, that he can share his experience in
international business with the university community. During his 1992
trip to Europe, he met with UB's John Thomas, associate dean of
International Studies and Programs, in Hungary. He had also planned to
meet President Greiner during that trip, but that meeting didn't work
out.
	Campbell says the trip was a fascinating experience. "The
countries are quite different, (in) different stages of economic
immaturity," he says. While he decided not to pursue business
opportunities in Eastern Europe right away, he came away with some
very interesting impressions.
	"The scale and access of the U.S. market is so different," he
says. "I felt quite positive about the environments in Poland, Hungary
and the Czech Republic." The Russian economy is struggling with the
transition from a state-controlled economy, he says.
	He notes that control and structure are elements that will
help determine the outcome of nations' forays into capitalism. China,
in particular, has good chances of making the transition, he says,
because it can implement an "incubated capitalism."
	"That's why China will do so well," he says. "It's really
going to be an interesting experiment."
	In addition to Campbell's own service to higher education, the
company supports secondary education. Computer Task Group has
"adopted" the Buffalo Academy of Science. The partnership helps the
academy's students by giving them access to the business world, and it
provides some fun as well: Graduation exercises were held in the
company's Delaware Avenue headquarters, a lavish mansion that has been
adapted to the needs of business. "This is an unusual and kind of a
fun place," Campbell says.
	Campbell also sits on the boards of a variety of community
cultural and financial and service organizations, including the
Roswell Park Cancer Institute's Community Council, First Empire State
Corp. and National Fuel Gas Co., as well as others. He also is a
trustee of the University at Buffalo Foundation.
	Although business and community involvement take an enormous
amount of time, Campbell also makes family a top priority. He and his
wife, Gay Wind Campbell, have "four pretty spectacular kids" and when
he relaxes, he wants to be with them.
	"I play squash, but I like to play squash with my son," he
says. "I ski, but I'm more likely to ski with my family."
	And when he gets a chance to do some leisure reading, Campbell
enjoys novels like those of James Clavell.
	But don't expect to find him curled up with a book too often:
he remains very busy. Clearly he likes it that way.
	Campbell is as optimistic about the future of the companyQQa
new president, a woman, was recently appointedQQas he is about the
future of the world. And he's ready to get busy at shaping it.
	"There's a lot to be done. It's a wonderful world."