Inspired by His Parents. Transformed by IMSA. Shared by Joe Beda ’93 with Future Generations.
When people hear Joe Beda ’93, they often think about his remarkable career.
As one of the co-creators of Kubernetes, Joe has helped shape the cloud computing technologies that power much of today’s digital world. His career has taken him from Microsoft to Google, where he helped launch Google Compute Engine and Kubernetes, to co-founding Heptio, which was later acquired by VMware.
Today, Joe serves as Chief Technology Officer of Stacklok. He and his wife, Dr. Rachel Beda, a physician and fellow Harvey Mudd College graduate, have built careers dedicated to solving complex problems and improving lives.
Yet when Joe reflects on the experience that truly changed the trajectory of his life, he doesn’t begin by talking about technology.
He talks about belonging.
Finding a Place to Belong
Growing up, Joe often felt different.
He had good friends in his hometown, but he never quite felt like he fit in. His interests, the way he thought, and even the way he interacted socially often left him feeling like an outsider.
Everything changed when he arrived at IMSA.
“I felt like this was a place where being smart was actually a good thing,” Joe recalls.
For the first time, he found classmates who shared his curiosity and accepted people for exactly who they were.
“Back when I attended IMSA, there wasn’t the same level of understanding we have today about people who interact or engage socially in different ways,” he says. “But at IMSA, differences were simply accepted. What might have been considered ‘weird’ somewhere else was just part of who you were here.”
“I found social acceptance at IMSA. I found people who didn’t fit in anywhere else, and suddenly I fit in too.”
That sense of connection became just as important as anything he learned in the classroom.
More Than Residence Halls
Those memories are exactly why Joe and his wife, Rachel, chose to become one of the first leadership donors to IMSA’s Where Curiosity Lives Campaign, even before the State of Illinois announced its historic investment to build new residence halls.
For Joe, the campaign isn’t about constructing newer buildings. It’s about creating the kind of community that transformed his own life.
“The vision for student support, especially the connection piece, really mirrored my own experience,” he explains.
He believes the most important parts of the campaign are often the least visible.
“This isn’t about how fancy IMSA can make the residence halls,” Joe says. “It’s about helping students from every corner of Illinois feel like they belong.”
That means creating welcoming spaces where families can stay connected while students live away from home, cultural kitchens where traditions can be shared, collaborative study spaces that encourage friendships, and wellness resources that recognize students are still teenagers navigating one of the most important transitions of their lives.
It’s a vision centered on Care, Connection, and Curiosity, the very qualities Joe believes made IMSA extraordinary.
Curiosity About People
Joe credits much of his perspective to his loving parents.
They taught him the value of hard work, kindness, and perhaps most importantly, curiosity about people.
“My parents prepared me to approach people with curiosity instead of judgment,” he says.
Coming to IMSA expanded that lesson in ways he never imagined.
Students arrived from tiny rural towns without street names. Others came from the heart of downtown Chicago. They brought different experiences, cultures, and perspectives.
“The antidote to intolerance is exposure,” Joe says.
“Coming to IMSA allowed me to really know people whose lives were completely different from mine.”
That lesson has stayed with him throughout his life and career.
Community Creates Innovation
Although Joe’s professional accomplishments are extraordinary, he is quick to point out that none of them happened alone.
Speaking to IMSA students as part of the 2022 Convocation program, he reflected on one lesson that has become central to both his career and his life.
“There is a myth in software engineering about the ’10x engineer’, someone who is supposedly ten times more productive than everyone else,” he says.
Joe doesn’t believe that’s true.
“The real 10x people are the ones who make everyone around them better.”
For Joe, innovation has always been built through relationships, collaboration, mentorship, and community, not individual brilliance.
That belief mirrors IMSA’s vision for the future.
While the State’s investment will replace the Academy’s aging residence halls, philanthropy will create the spaces and experiences that transform those buildings into communities where students connect, discover, collaborate, and thrive.
Building the Next 40 Years
As IMSA celebrates its 40th anniversary, Joe hopes alumni remember what made the Academy so special.
“Don’t lose sight of how special IMSA is,” he says. “It takes people and effort and community to make IMSA happen.”
That belief is why Joe and Rachel chose to invest early.
Their leadership gift is helping create an experience where every future student can discover what Joe found nearly four decades ago, a place where curiosity is celebrated, differences are embraced, friendships last a lifetime, and every student knows they belong.
The State of Illinois is making new residence halls possible. Together, alumni and friends can make them extraordinary.
As the public phase of the Where Curiosity Lives Campaign continues, every gift helps create the spaces and experiences that will define IMSA’s next 40 years, and ensure that generations of students find what Joe found when he first stepped onto campus:
A place to belong.