What is your career progression since graduating from Purdue?
In 1975, While completing my dissertation I got a late night telephone call from a friend who had been a graduate student with me at Case Tech. He asked me if I knew anything about Foreign Exchange forecasting. When I assured him that I was clueless, he hired me. At Chase Econometrics in suburban Philadelphia I used my quant skills to forecast currencies and model political risk. I then went on to work for an EVP at Chase Manhattan Bank assessing bank performance.
My wife and I were most happy in Philadelphia and we didn’t want to relocate to New York City, so I left Chase and became a consultant with a boutique management firm in Philadelphia. In the early 1980’s I went over to General Electric (still in suburban Philadelphia) to work on an immense classified project. In 1987, when I grew tired of being a road warrior and living in Washington, D.C., hotels I found a position with Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) a piece of Bell Labs that was now owned by the “baby bells.” My family moved to New Jersey as a result.
In 1995, a professional acquaintance who was a Vice President at IBM tempted me with a most interesting opportunity, so I came on board there. The challenge was to develop an effective method for sharing project management success within a large (35,000 employee) organization, IBM Global Services. IBM Global Services provides consulting and project management worldwide. Somewhere within IBM there is someone who has mastered a specific domain, for example Software Maintenance, and somewhere within IBM there is someone in charge of a Software Maintenance project who lacks that experience. And it’s most unlikely that these two will ever meet. So I was part of a team that developed a great methodology for sharing expertise.
In 2005, I went from IBM to IBI (Information Builders, Inc.) as a manager of the Project Management Office. In 2007, I moved over to the Bank of New York Mellon as a Vice President in their Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) – where I coached and monitored senior project managers. I was downsized in 2009 as more jobs are shifting away from NYC to Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
When an old friend of mine heard that I was “looking”, I became a consultant in the Science and Technology division of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA.) We brought in our project on-time and in-budget.
My IDA contract ended in June of 2011 and I’m now looking for an opportunity to coach and lead project managers.
In parallel with my civilian career I was able to continue to serve in the Army. Drafted in 1970, I served on active duty for two years in the Army Chief of Staff’s Office (General Westmoreland) and the continued in the Army Reserve. I continued to serve in the Chief of Staff’s Office, then moved over to the Secretary of the Army for Research, Development and Acquisition. I was promoted to Colonel in 1992. My last ten years with the Army were at the Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership, where I commanded a team of colonels during the annual Strategic Crisis Exercise. I retired from the Army in 2001.
Where are you from and what made you decide to attend Purdue?
I was born on a freight train along the Polish-Ukrainian border. After a sojourn in D.P. (displaced person) camps in Germany, my family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when I was about four years old. I grew up in Cleveland, but was living in suburban Washington, D.C. when I choose Purdue.
To make a short story, long — I did my B.S. at Case Tech (now part of CWRU) in Cleveland and was a graduate student at Case but when the late Professor Dan Teichroew took a department chair at the University of Michigan I followed him there. I subsequently got drafted. I received an M.S. from UofM. After completing my active duty tour I worked as a civil servant within the Department of Defense, saving up funds to go back to school. By then two friends from Case Tech where professors at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management. Krannert offered an excellent opportunity to pursue my interests so I jumped into my car and headed West.
What is your favorite memory during your time there or after?
I remember sitting in an accounting class when a classmate wondered aloud whether what we were learning was only of academic interest. Without missing a beat, this professor replied, “I happen to be an academician!”
What career advice would you have for students?
Seize opportunities to find challenging work that’s fun and make sure that you’re working alongside great people — people you can consider friends. I’ve been most fortunate to get up every morning looking forward to going to my work. If that’s not the case — then move on.
