Career Narrative

I'll be the first to admit that this is not your typical resume format. The way I see it, the more you know about me, the easier your decision will be.  I'm not looking for just a job, I'm looking for my next passion. I'm a high energy guy with a strong work ethic. I bring experience and wisdom to the table formed through many product development cycles and many years of hard work.

Fresh out of school, I went to work for GVO, one of the original Silicon Valley design firms in Palo Alto. At GVO, I often worked with "The G" (Dale Gruye) on product development programs where he provided the industrial design concepts and I would do all the rest: figuring out how it could be made, designing the piece parts, building the models and prototypes, interfacing with vendors, and finalizing the documentation. 

Early on in my career, I discovered I had a talent for working the area between initial design concepts and volume manufacturing. This hands-on specialty requires a great deal of vendor interaction, problem solving, and detail oriented management. I became known as the go-to guy for quick time to market products, the guy responsible for taking the aesthetic designs and building them into real products.  I've worked with tooling vendors, molders, metal stampers, fabricators and contract manufacturers across the North America, Europe, and Asia.  I'm a "roll up your sleeves and get it done" kind of guy.

After nearly 3 years, an opportunity to pursue my dream of residential construction lured me away. This next short career phase was as a designer/builder.  After designing and building a large hillside home in Novato, I broke my arm one Christmas Day. The injury was so severe that my doctor informed me I would likely have to learn to be left handed and I would have at best a 15 degree range of motion in my elbow.  Luckily he was wrong on his predictions but it put a big damper in my plans. With my arm in a cast, I returned to GVO and was re-hired on the spot, returning to work the next day.

One of my favorite clients during my second stint at GVO was Osborne Computer Corp., offering one of the world's first mass produced portable computers. After completing the task of getting the OCC1 into production, I was hired by Osborne to manage their product development programs. Working with a small internal staff and outside consultants, I developed 3 more generations of their portable computer. This job intorduced me to world travel with extensive stays in Taiwan and Hing Kong. Foolishly, Adam Osborne maintained a strong focus on the CP-M operating system in spite of increasing market demand for DOS based machines. As sales slowed, Osborne ran out of cash and the company dissipated in bankruptcy.

Upon Osborne's demise, I partnered with one of my consultant friends to start Studio Red, an Industrial Design and product engineering firm. My business partner, Phil Bourgeois, and I had irreconsilable differences when it came ot running a business so we dissolved our partnership after a year. Fortunately, though we were not destined to be business partners, we've maintained a strong friendship through the years.

Following the Studio Red year, I focused on product development engineering, working out of a home office. After a number of years enjoying the home-office lifestyle, I got married and was persuaded to return to the 9 to 5 world by my friends at GVO. While at GVO for the 3rd time, I took over management and business development of their prototype department, one of their 4 profit centers.  I also managed their IT needs. Unfortunately, GVO didn't survive much past the retirement of the last of its founding partners.  At the end, the prototype department, which I branded as 3D-I, handled an enormous amount of work and kept our 3 CNC millings machines and a staff of modelmakers in constant demand.

As GVO was in the process of imploding, I accepted a position with Hello Direct, a mail order marketer of telephone focused productivity tools. There, I worked on many of their headsets and other products, interfacing often with their Korean ODM partner. I traveled to Soeul, Korea many times detailing new product requirements and schedules, solving production problems, and coordinating with many  production related vendors.

It was during my stint at Hello Direct that I learned about a new company, Handspring, that was being formed by the founders of Palm. I decided that this was an opportunity not to be missed, so I set my sights on Handspring and was hired as one of the initial ten professionals. My title was Manager of  Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering and my mandate was to work with our design consultants and manufacturing partners to bring Handspring's flagship product to market as quickly as possible. By working in a parallel rather than serial approach, I was able to shave months off the time to market. In the early days, team members worked in a near borderless environment where anyone with minutes to spare was recruited to assist in other areas of business need.

I loved my years at Handspring, but all good things seem to come to an end.  Such was the case for Handspring and as money dried up and the stock price plunged to less than 1% of it's market high, it seemed like time to move on.

An unsolicited and seemingly ridiculous offer for our house in Los Altos Hills formed the catalyst for moving to Southern Oregon and giving retirement a try. Retirement didn't last for me and soon I was involved in another venture, this time with me at the helm. In conjunction with a busines partner, we developed 6 acres into a subdivision of 31 lots and built 26 duplexes and 4 single family homes.  We've turned this development into Horizon Village, a unique senior community of rental cottages and homes. The building of this business occupied my time for the next 6 years as we designed and built each of the homes, hired staff, and built a business that grosses over $1,000,000 per year.
 
I enjoyed Southern Oregon very much, but the environment was not the best I could provide for the rest of my family. My wife and I rationalized that California offered a better educational opportunity for our daughters as well as a better opportunity for career and happiness for my wife. We made the decision to sell the Oregon property and moved back to the Bay Area.  I've been busy here, but Horizon Village is operating smoothly with little need for owner intervention and I'm ready to find my next exciting opportunity.

 

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