 I’m
a native Californian as I was born and raised in Richmond, which
is part of the San Francisco East Bay area. I attended University
of California,
Berkeley from the mid-1960s to early 70s which was an incredible
period of social and political change; what a phenomenal time to
be young and in college!
After graduating from Berkeley I spent the first several years
of my “professional” career developing public library based
information and referral programs with and for people of color,
especially the non-English speaking communities. I subsequently
pursued my doctoral studies in the new and still evolving
field of information and communication technologies at the University of
Wisconsin and kept my hands and soul refreshed during my studies by developing
information and referral programs for migrant farm workers in
Wisconsin and the Midwest. I left UW-Madison with many good
memories and a Ph.D. in IT and Information Sciences.
I opted for the business, rather than academic world, after
completing my doctorate. I began my business career as an
Account Executive with what was then Pacific Bell and subsequently
moved to AT&T where I had the great fortune to be part of the
marketing team preparing for telecommunications deregulation. I
spent several years with AT&T as a National Account Manager,
Sales Manager, and Operations Manager. I was recruited from AT&T
by NEC (Tokyo) and served as their Western Region Director of
Computer and Communications. My six years with NEC constituted
another great learning and earning opportunity, including
significant business related travel and business meetings to Japan, Mexico, and other
parts of the Pacific Rim.
I left NEC to start PRM (Pacific Resources and Management), a Systems Integration firm that
developed, implemented, and maintained Distance Learning and
Video Arraignment systems. PRM provided me an opportunity to
practice my entrepreneurial skills in a real-world and
high-intensity environment that was both great
fun and great agony. I learned as much from my mistakes as my
successes and left PRM to serve as President of Sat Networks
International (SNI), another systems integration firm that was
developing and implementing leap-frog technologies and
applications in Mexico and Latin America. SNI implemented
several major projects, including the first provision of
advanced telephone and data services to many rural communes (ejidos)
in Mexico and the delivery of internet services to several
Mexican colleges and universities using satellite technology. In
addition to using US based technologies we also developed a
Network Operations Center in Mexico City that constituted
another great learning experience.
I left SNI after being recruited by Southern California Edison
(SCE) to help prepare their major customer services organization for the
impending deregulation of the California energy market. After
learning the fundamentals of the energy business and working within the regulated
business of SCE I was recruited by PacifiCorp to lead their
deregulated sales organization in California. Sempra, the mother
company of SDG&E and The Gas Company, subsequently recruited me
from PacifiCorp to perform a turn-around of their Midwest
natural gas operations that was headquartered in Louisville, KY.
After that assignment I returned to California where I helped
develop their national accounts program and served as a sales
VP. I was recruited again (guess I can’t say no to a new
challenge) by Science Application International Corporation (SAIC)
to lead their commercial energy business development. I made the
decision after 9-11 to leave SAIC to teach full time at Whittier
College.
I co-authored a text on Energy Services Outsourcing
that was published a few years back and am now focusing on the
issues associated with offshore outsourcing, including the
protection of intellectual property and new product and service
development. Over the years I have
taught several undergraduate and graduate courses in IT,
Telecommunications, International Business, Negotiation Skills,
Chicano Bibliography, and Change Management at UCLA, Claremont
Graduate University. University
of Wisconsin, University of Arizona, and other colleges and
universities.
One of my greatest teaching rewards has been the opportunity
to offer students "global" field trips to meet with innovative
businesses around the world, including several extended field
rips to Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and other nations. During this
last Fall 2009 semester I was on sabbatical and used the
time to teach several courses onboard the MS Voyager
on an around the world teaching/learning odyssey supported by
the Institute for Shipboard Education/Semester at Sea Program. We
circumnavigated the world and visited Canada, Spain,
Morocco, Ghana, S. Africa, Mauritius, India, Vietnam, China, and
Japan. What an incredible adventure it was and it taught me a
great deal about the flattened world we live and work in. One of
the most fascinating aspects of this global adventure was the
opportunity to arrange field trips to meet with senior
executives of global firms and the heads of government agencies
responsible for economic and environmental development.
I live in Whittier with my wife Alicia who is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action investigator, trainer and consultant. I’m delighted and
proud to be a member of the Whittier College family today where
I teach the core courses in Operations, MIS, and International
Business. |
