Faith can make a person do things that may not seem rational to the casual observer. Take 23-year-old Brando Guerrero for instance. His faith in a small Urbandale technology company and its owners made him cast aside a career he’d spent years preparing for.

Guerrero is the office director for the Des Moines branch of J.D. Technology Systems Inc. When he joined the company last fall as a systems engineer after graduating from college, he intended to work there after college only temporarily while he applied for jobs in international business and communications. Fluent in four languages, he considered moving to Barcelona, Spain, to work for the Gallup Organization. But instead, he trusted his instincts and stayed at the computer services company.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life,” Guerrero said. “I didn’t know whether to choose to go after my dream and what I’d been preparing for throughout college, or join a company that has great potential, and is essentially going to be a lot of work, but rewarding in the end.”

J.D. Technology Systems was launched in 1999 under the name J.D. Web Services. Jeremy Glick formed the company in his mid-20s to meet businesses’ Web programming needs. Jeremy Glick’s brother, Ryan, grew up with Guerrero in Perry. When Ryan Glick decided to go into business with his older brother, he offered Guerrero a job.

“I was skiing out in Breckenridge with Brando during our senior year of college, and I told him that if I could, someday I would have him help me with the business,” Ryan Glick said. “He said, ‘All right,’ but I didn’t think it would really happen.”

At the time, Guerrero didn’t think so either.

Guerrero, a native of Mexico, moved to the United States at the age of 6 with his mother, Maria Azar. He did not speak English at the time, but soon learned the language when he began public school in his new hometown, Dodge City, Kan. She later moved the family to Perry to join relatives there who told her about a better-paying job.

Guerrero and Ryan Glick became friends while growing up in Perry, and both went on to the University of Iowa for college. But their interests were different. Guerrero joined a fraternity and studied public relations, French, Portuguese and international business. Glick studied management information systems and computer science.

“There were a couple of years where I never saw him at college,” Glick said. “But went to work for my brother after college, I knew that he was still in the process of looking for a job overseas, and I asked him if he would help us in the meantime with public relations work and low-level computer jobs.”

“I’d always been fascinated with technology, but I was ready to go off to Barcelona and start my new life as a business professional,” Guerrero said. “But Ryan and his older brother approached me and told me that there was so much potential here, and I realized that I’d be sort of laying the groundwork here for a very successful business with so much potential and the ability to have essentially unlimited growth.”

Guerrero compared his leadership role with J.D. Technology Systems to what he would encounter upon joining a large international company. If he went to work for Gallup, he figured he would begin as an entry-level employee and spend years working his way up the corporate ladder. Whereas if he stayed in Des Moines, he had the opportunity to help mold J.D. Technology Systems into “what we envisioned a successful business to be.”

The company had already grown considerably by the time Guerrero came on board. In December 2003, Jeremy Glick opened a second office in Chicago. That location became the company’s corporate headquarters and the data center for its Web hosting operations. J.D. Technology Systems now serves more than 2,000 clients across the United States and in 40 countries. The company wanted to grow larger yet through consulting work, starting with the Urbandale office.

Because Des Moines is a competitive market for IT outsourcing, Guerrero and Ryan Glick have their work cut out for them. Sometimes their youth also poses a challenge when they approach companies for their business.

“When people see us and realize how young we are, it does take a little more to convince people that we are serious about what we do and that we are going to do a professional job,” Ryan Glick said.

To build awareness about J.D. Technology Systems and its services, Guerrero decided to become more involved in the community. A social person by nature, he is now active in several local professional and social organizations.

“My involvement started out as a way to grow professionally, but it turned into more than that after a few months, when I realized the potential Des Moines has to be a strong place for arts, culture and quality of life,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero is the president of a small business development group, Networks by Design. He is also the public relations and marketing chairperson for Alianza a Greater Des Moines Latino business association, and he serves on the social and marketing committees of the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Young Professionals Connection. In addition, he is part of the Partnership’s Communications Advisory Committee, an organization representative of many types of businesses.

“The advisory committee tries to figure out different ways to get the word out not only about Des Moines and what it has to offer, but we also talk about ways to provide more for the people living in Greater Des Moines,” he said.

Guerrero also serves on the alumni board for the fraternity he belonged to at the U of I, Sigma Phi Epsilon, by working with the Drake University chapter. With any free time that remains, he volunteers for the Animal Rescue League of Iowa and works part time as a freelance photographer.

“Life is busy, but if there’s a time in my life when I can do all this, it’s now,” Guerrero said. “I’m young and I don’t have a family waiting for me at home at night.”

Guerrero also believes that Des Moines is an ideal place for him to take on this challenge.

“I really think Des Moines is one of the few places where a young professional can start his own business and be successful,” he said. “You can’t go to Chicago and walk into a room and expect to be given a chance. But we’re at a point where Des Moines is growing so much that people are more apt to take on change. We’re really fortunate to be a part of it all, and I expect to see our company grow along with the city.”