JANUARY 9 • 2020 | 43

Daryl Ziegelman, chief technology 
officer (CTO) at Central Data in 
Farmington Hills, has worked in 
the field of software development 
and distribution since its infancy. 
Ziegelman grew up in 
Farmington Hills and harbored an 
interest in computers since child-
hood. He recalls receiving an Apple 
II computer for his bar mitzvah, 
one of the first on the market, 
which helped ignite his passion for 

computers and software. 
After attending Farmington 
schools and later Cranbrook, Daryl 
went to the University of Redlands, 
a small college on the West Coast, 
but, in time, he found that he 
missed the Midwest, longing for 
something “different” from what 
he could find in California. He 
returned home, where he recon-
nected with his former friend 
Cindy, the woman who would later 

become his wife.
They were married at Temple 
Kol Ami in 1996 and had their chil-
dren attend Adat Shalom preschool 
before eventually joining Temple 
Shir Shalom. They sing in the choir 
at Temple Shir Shalom, and the 
two look forward to going to Israel 
in 2021 once their kids have all 
graduated high school. 
After returning home from 
California, Ziegelman worked as an 
information technology manager 
at a wholesale distributor of office 
supplies. He found new software 
to replace an old crashing sys-
tem — and then went to work for 
the company that distributed the 
software.
Ziegelman worked in the distri-
bution marketplace for a few years 
and owned various consulting 
companies before he found Central 
Data to be a great fit. He began in 
sales and worked his way through 
various roles before becoming 
Central Data’
s CTO in 2018. 
Central Data sells distribution 
and inventory management soft-

ware to wholesale distributors. 
It is a full-service provider, 
helping companies with both 
training and long term-implemen-
tation of software like Cloudsuite 
Distribution, designed to help 
businesses run more of their 
own product distribution services 
through “the cloud” rather than 
traditional hardware. Ziegelman 
has called the cloud “a wonderful 
thing” and credits Central Data’
s 
work with the cloud for driving 
much of its recent success. The 
company expanded from 17 peo-
ple to nearly 45 since he joined. 
Ziegelman is also involved with 
the nonprofit community theater 
Stagecrafters in Royal Oak. “My 
mother saw an article that said 
that they were doing West Side 
Story at the JCC,” Ziegelman 
recalls. This propelled him to 
explore acting and various theaters 
in the area. 
He “ultimately found a home” 
at Stagecrafters, where he serves 
on the board and is co-chair of the 
planning committee. 

JASON RUBENFIRE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Distribution Guru

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Daryl 
Ziegelman

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