Yves Hajjar

Yardi Systems

By Leah Etling on Aug 16, 2012 in People | 1 Comment

When he was 14, Yves Hajjar’s father gave him a gift that would influence the course of his life. It was a used personal computer, and along with the remote control airplanes he loved to fly as a kid, it soon consumed Yves’ free time.

With the guidance of a computer engineer mentor in his hometown of Lyon, France, he learned not to be afraid to take the PC apart, put it back together, and replace any parts that he broke in the process. Most of his friends didn’t yet have PC’s , so he was lucky to have hands-on experience with one. Soon, he made an interesting discovery.

“I quickly realized while poking around the files on the computer that everything was written in English. ‘Print’ means something in English – it means nothing in French. That made me want to come to the U.S.,” said Yves, now a development team lead for Yardi Systems. Based in San Diego, Calif, Yves is part of the Realtown team. Yardi Systems acquired Realtown in 2011.

Four years after his dad bought him the used PC, Yves came to the U.S. to attend college at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which had an exchange program with a French university. He struggled at first with the transition to a completely new culture, but received a terrific education.

The UMass Dartmouth computer engineering program put students together in groups and emphasized problem solving as a learning exercise. Students’ desks faced each other instead of the front of the room. “We were troubleshooting issues, and learning how to fix problems as a team instead of with a teacher,” Yves recalled. The skills he developed, and one significant moment involving a special girl, were the highlights of his undergraduate experience.

Yves paid for his education with a student loan,  some scholarships and worked as a resident assistant in the UMass dorms. As part of his RA work, he met all of the entering foreign students and helped answer their questions about adjustment to campus. His wife, Claire, a student from Northern France, was part of this group in his last year on campus. They instantly connected and have now been together for nearly  10 years.

This year, now-married couple welcomed their first child, daughter Chloé, into their lives. After Yves graduated, they took a risk and decided to pool their savings, pack everything they owned, and try to find jobs in California. They arrived in Los Angeles with enough money to spend two months in hostels before one of them would have to find work.

Claire managed to find a job first, in San Diego, so that’s where they settled.  Yves joined the RealTown team in 2005. He quickly distinguished himself as the company’s top programmer. Working in a small team, he was exposed to all aspects of software, from databases to user interfaces and all the code in between, which he believes is a great way to develop strong development skills .

“The single most important thing for me was being at a small company where I could learn every aspect of the software development lifecycle,” he noted. Noticing deficiencies in RealTown’s online training product, he began redesigning it – outside of work hours. Realtown offered e-Pro to over twenty thousand Realtors after the redesign.

From 2007 to 2009, Yves went back to school and earned his MBA with an emphasis on executive training. He worked full time and took classes at San Diego State every weekend. His diligence was noted by a colleague, who commented: “(Yves) never stops improving himself with better knowledge and skills.”

Yves told us that he went back to school because he wanted to understand the operational and financial side of businesses and develop a broader business perspective. His passion for learning, which has been a driving force since his childhood, is stronger than ever.

For his MBA thesis, Yves began work on a project that is still part of his daily life today.  He is the principal architect of Yardi eLearning, an exciting training product that will soon be available to the marketplace. As a new dad, he’s busier than ever, but he loves his life and work.