Ross' career in the Information Technology industry began at Management Science America, Inc., better known as MSA. Ross was the Midwest Regional Recruiter for the mainframe business applications software company, responsible for all recruiting for a 250-person region.

Ross displayed a special talent for recruiting sales and sales support staff. From 1986-1990, Ross helped the regional management team grow their sales organization, staffed an emerging professional services organization and supported the merger of MSA and McCormack & Dodge that created Dun & Bradstreet Software. The Midwest Region was twice recognized as the Number 1 in the company, and Ross was Recruiter of the Year in 1988.

Ross was handpicked to lead the review, evaluation and implementation of a selection methodology intended to significantly increase the company's odds of attracting, hiring and retaining the best salesforce in the industry. As Project Leader, Ross developed an interest in competency-based interviewing and was intimately involved in the study of top sales performers.

The selection practices that emerged were used everywhere in the organization, and the company gained a reputation throughout the industry as a model of successful hiring practices and a wellspring of talent. MSA and its successor Dun & Bradstreet Software were committed to acquiring talent, and the company's market position and the emergence of many of its employees to positions of leadership in the industry today attest to the success of this approach.

In 1990, Ross moved into sales and was assigned to the Healthcare vertical, with responsibility for a seven-state territory. Ross sold the full suite of financial, materials management and human resources applications as well as healthcare specific products such as Patient Cost Accounting and Case Mix Analysis, and sold the second beta-site of DBS's SmartStream Client-Server platform.