The Author
Ric Urrutia
The Author
Ric Urrutia was born in Coatepeque, Guatemala, in 1959, the son of a civil engineer who became the country's first chief information officer — the man hired to run Guatemala's first mainframe computer. The family had emigrated to Los Angeles — his father in 1964, and Ric and the rest of the family following in 1965 — and returned in 1974, when that machine called his father home; Ric was fifteen. When his father realized the machine was being used to rig the country's elections, he kept quiet — he knew what speaking up would cost. In 1978, under a new government, he finally spoke. It cost him his job. Ric was studying computer science at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City when the violence of that era reached his own circle of friends; he left for California in 1980.
In 1989 he founded Taos, which grew into one of Silicon Valley's defining IT services firms — six hundred employees serving Apple, Google, Facebook, Nvidia, and hundreds of other companies — until it was acquired by IBM in 2021: a full-circle turn for the son of the man who ran an IBM mainframe in Guatemala. He now invests in and advises technology companies.
He lives in Saratoga, California, with Ellen, his wife of more than forty years. Their three children and three grandchildren all live nearby. Ghost Code is his first novel.
The Man Who Built It
Ric's father was one of the men who carried Guatemala into the computer age — an engineer who built and ran the government's first IBM mainframe systems in the 1970s and became the country's first chief of information systems.
In March 1974, Guatemala elected a president. Later, once the mainframe was running and the old counts were inside it, the numbers told one story; what the government had announced on the radio told another. His father was one of very few people in the country positioned to know the difference — and he understood exactly what that knowledge was worth, and what it could cost a man with a family.
When Lucas García took power in 1978, Ric's father finally spoke up about what the machine had been used for — and it cost him everything. He was removed and replaced by one of the president's own cousins, a colonel. For Ric's father, it was devastating.
Ric was there — a teenager in Guatemala City through those years, watching it happen. Decades later, in California, father and son began to talk. Ghost Code grew from those stories — the father's, and the son's.
"The story of what his father's generation built, what was hidden inside it, and what it cost."
From the Highlands to the Valley
- 1959
Ric is born in Coatepeque, Guatemala, the son of a civil engineer.
- 1965
Ric's family emigrates to Inglewood, California.
- 1974
Ric's father becomes Guatemala's first chief information officer, hired to run the country's first mainframe. Ric and the rest of the family return to Guatemala with him; Ric is fifteen.
- 1975
With the mainframe running, Ric's father sees that the previous year's presidential election had been decided in the counting.
- Late 1970s
Ric studies computer science at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City.
- 1978
Ric's father finally speaks up about the rigged elections. Lucas García fires him and installs one of his cousins, a colonel, in his place.
- 1980
Ric leaves Guatemala for California — this time, Silicon Valley.
- 1989
Ric founds Taos, which grows into one of Silicon Valley's defining IT services firms — six hundred employees serving Apple, Google, Facebook, Nvidia, and hundreds of other companies.
- 2021
Taos is acquired by IBM — a full-circle turn for the son of the man who ran an IBM mainframe in Guatemala.
- Today
Ric invests in and advises technology companies from Saratoga, California. Ghost Code is his first novel.