Spokane-area tech executive and entrepreneur Kris Bliesner sits at the helm of Vega Cloud, a Liberty Lake-based cloud automation and optimization company.

Prior to Vega Cloud, Bliesner was the co-founder of the cloud-computing company 2nd Watch Inc., of Liberty Lake. 

In addition to his work at Vega, Bliesner has served multiple organizations, including Vanessa Behan and the Charitable Pharmacy Group, a subset of Cancer Can’t nonprofit that provides financial assistance, advocacy, and other resources for adult cancer patients in the Spokane area. Vega helped build technology for Charitable Pharmacy with the mission of being able to reuse unopened, non-expired medicine.

Education: Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Eastern Washington University.

What was your first job and what did you learn from it? My first job was boat detailer at a local boat shop, and I learned quickly that I didn't want to do manual labor the rest of my life after scrubbing and polishing boat hulls for eight hours a day.

Why did you choose to do what you do? I have always been interested in computers and software, in particular. I took a programming class in high school and loved the idea of training a computer how to accomplish something useful. 

What advice would you have for others looking to follow a career path similar to yours? Take more risks. Early in your career, try and fail as often as you can. Move around. Try different roles, different companies. It’s hard to understand a thing--an industry, a career, etc.--if you haven't looked at it from different angles and roles. 

What's a fact about you that most people would be surprised to learn? At one point in my last startup, I learned to play the bagpipes.

Do you have a favorite quote/motto? “Chance favors the prepared mind.” - Louis Pasteur