About Me

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About me, been there, done that… born during the “great” depression. The only thing great about it was that there was not a lot of babies born during that period - less competition. Having spent two years in the army during the Korean war (fighting it from Germany) I knew what I didn’t want to do. So after college and one year as a 7th grade math teacher, I quickly decided that while I loved teaching the system was a mess… and still is.  

My career goal, which I had set for myself, was to be a senior executive in a large corporation before I reached 40. My first job after teaching was with Lockheed Missiles and Space as a senior Industrial Engineer. It turned out that I was the only person that had seen a punch card, so  I was transferred to computer operations as Head of Computer Methods (now 27). 

My next job was manager of Computer Operations for Fairchild Semiconductor.  I discovered at both Lockheed and Fairchild they were not making use of their computers. They were just moving stuff from old plug board machines to them,  so they could print faster.  I ended up in Stockton CA and found my dream job at TLF. The “plug board” manager asked me if I wanted to see his input and output and I quickly replied NO! I was planning on designing a whole new system from scratch, which I eventually did. In the end, it was so successful that Honeywell printed up a sales piece featuring my new system. 

However, I had to move on if I were to reach my goal. Luckily, I was saved by a headhunter that approached me for a wonderful job at a large San Francisco (my place of birth) based company. The President wanted me to fix almost everything -  marketing, production, distribution, sales and accounting. When the President asked me, "What do you want to be Vice President of?". I replied I didn’t want to be a Vice President because no matter what is put after ,“Vice President of ....”, people would know what I am not supposed to do. I suggested a title of 'Internal Consultant'. Within three years, I was promoted by the Board to Senior Vice President and CFO …   at 37! I left after three years and founded The Institute for Management Studies (IMS) - 45 years later it is still the leader in the field leadership development .