Before taking the helm of Reynolds and Reynolds Co., Bob Brockman was a self-taught computer programmer who started Reynolds’ eventual acquiror, Universal Computer Systems Inc., from his Houston living room.

Brockman’s initial product for UCS focused on tracking dealership parts inventory.

“I wrote the first parts inventory package in the evenings, and then went out and sold it,” Brockman, 79, said in a biography on his personal website. “I actually sold in the daytime, programmed at night, and processed on the weekend.”

Brockman, who has rarely granted interviews, on Thursday was indicted in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on 39 counts of tax fraud, money laundering, destruction of evidence and other financial charges. He pleaded not guilty by video conference from Houston.

The longtime software executive holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida and started in the industry as a Ford Motor Co. marketing trainee in the 1960s. He followed that experience by joining IBM in its service bureau. He has said he became the bureau’s top-ranked sales representative in 1969, his third year in the role.

He has served on the boards of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, is a trustee emeritus of Rice University in Houston and is a past board chairman of Centre College in Danville, Ky., which he attended.

Brockman’s UCS merged with Reynolds and Reynolds Co. in a $2.8 billion transaction in 2006, which took then-publicly traded Reynolds private. Reynolds is the largest privately held dealership management system provider in the U.S. today.

Some dealers have described Brockman’s style over the years as tough, and have been critical of the company’s practices regarding third-party data access and the fees it charges certified vendors to receive information stored inside a dealership’s DMS.

Even when he was acquiring Reynolds and Reynolds in 2006, he was described as reclusive and private. The Houston Business Journal that year called Brockman one of Houston’s wealthiest but least-known businessmen and an “intensely private millionaire.”

In fact, Automotive News was unable to even obtain a photo of him for an in-depth profile story published at the time.

Brockman’s visibility has increased somewhat in the years since and he appeared in this YouTube video from 2012.