Brief History

LEAD Associates was formed in February, 1992 to provide training and follow-up assistance in developing applications using FoxPro 2.0 for DOS, Windows, Unix and the Mac.  In June, 1992, Microsoft merged with Fox Software (located in Perrysburg, Ohio) and three years later brought us into the world of object-oriented and event-driven application development with the introduction of Visual FoxPro 3.0.  In 2004, Microsoft released the current Visual FoxPro 9.0 version, and has released two service packs to fully integrate VFP with the Vista operating system and other development tools.

From 1992 to 2011, we provided training for students from Europe to the east and the Caribbean Islands to the south, and from Canada to the north, and nearly all states in continental USA and Hawaii to the west.  On-site training was conducted from New Jersey and Virginia on the East Coast, to Arizona and Calgary, Canada in the West, and many sites throughout Midwest.

As of September 1, 2011, classes are no longer available at our Computer Training Facility in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Client Base

Our client base includes clients in manufacturing, communications, sales & marketing, insurance industry, financial services, medical services, federal, state and local government services, non-profit organizations, and public and private education.

People

The founder of LEAD Associates, Inc. is John W. Spilker. John is a graduate Electrical Engineer from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan. He also has a masters degree in Business Administration from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and has attended numerous seminars, workshops and special courses to continue his skill development.

John has a wealth of practical experience in engineering, maintenance, and manufacturing operations plus human resource development and computer related software development. During the second half of his career with General Motors he assisted in the formation of a training operation to meet the emerging needs for technical training of the skilled workforce which grew to providing a wide range of training from adult basic education for the non-skilled workforce to organizational and management development training for the salaried workforce.

In the Spring of 1992, as GM embarked upon downsizing its operations, John took advantage of GM's special early retirement program and retired from GM and formed LEAD Associates to continue with his work and interest in the field of education, training and consulting services and assist his brother David in his expanding application development business.

In 1993, LEAD Associates was incorporated in the State of Indiana, became a Microsoft Training Partner and Microsoft Solutions Provider, and opened a new Computer Training Center in Indianapolis. In 1995, John began developing in-depth training courses to assist application developers in using the full potential of Microsoft's Visual FoxPro application development software.

John enjoys teaching and helping students develop their skills, and continually updates his courses to incorporate the new features of each product release. Each class is a dynamic experience as John adds course content along the way to meet specific needs of those who attend his training.

As of September 1, 2011, John retired and no long teaches public classes for VFP201, 202, 301 and 401.

David A. Spilker graduated with a Computer Science and Business degree from Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana and formed Information Engineering, Inc. in 1984 to develop custom software applications for the emerging PC market. The business continues to grow and provide a wide range of application development services using Microsoft Visual FoxPro and Microsoft .NET as their base development tools.  In 1987 David formed Network Engineering, Inc. to provide hardware and network support for his clients.  His business ventures continue to expand as they provide data-driven application development solutions and computer system infrastructure to an expanding range of clients.