Introduction

I am a professor at IÉSEG School of Management, one of the Grand Ecoles de commerce in France.

How did I get here?

As a child, I was always academically inclined, and very successful. I started primary school a year early, and skipped a grade, so I started at university when I was 16, graduating in the top 15 of a class of over 1000 from my high school.

I went to Rice University as a National Merit Scholar. While I was accepted as a prospective chemical engineering major, I had shifted to electrical engineering before I arrived at Rice. In the end, I graduated in 1983, four years after I started, earning a BA with three majors: computer science, mathematical science, and French.

I then went to work. My work history, like most technical people in the US, was wide and varied. I worked at, and on:

* Link Flight Simulation: systems programmer on the F16 flight trainer for the USAF
* MIT Lincoln Laboratory: applications programming for terminal doppler weeather radar, systems programming for transportable optical space surveillance station
* Digital Equipment Corporation: systems programmer and systems administrator for manufacturing line systems at a manufacturing plant
* Aquila Technologies Group: systems, network, and security administration, along with some application and systems programming
* Sandia National Laboratories: systems, network, and security administration for internal systems
* SuperGroups.Com: systems, network, and security adminstration for internal systems and external website, moving up to Chief Technology Officer
* Adelphia Business Solution: systems, network, and security adminstration for internal systems
* Philadelphia Stock Exchange: systems, network, and security administration for the trading floor

I also worked as a consultant for several years, both before this history and after, mostly working in systems, network, and security administration, but also doing some application programming.

I have worked in both the business and the research and development worlds. I have probably written around 2 million lines of program code; mostly in C, but I have used about 25 other computer languages as well. Primarily my work was on computers running some variant of BSD UNIX, although I also worked on System V UNIX systems, VMS, and many other less-well known systems.

After over 20 years of professional experience, I returned to school.

I attended the University of New Mexico from 2003 until 2007, where I earned an MS in computer science and an MBA with specialities both in MIS and and in policy and planning.

I attended the University of Arkansas from 2007 until 2012 as a Distinguished Doctoral Fellow. I earned my PhD in business administration, speciality information systems, in 2012. As part of our doctoral training, we were the teacher of record for one class every semester, except for the very first. At UA, I taught introduction to information systems and data analysis. I also covered one-half of a systems analysis and development course due to the unexpected departure of one of the regular faculty members.

I started work at IÉSEG School Management in 2012 as a permanent faculty member in the management dapartment, in the information systems track. At IÉSEG, I have taught both the 2nd year introduction to information systems class, and the 3rd year MIS class. I have also taught a business analysis elective, a business modeling course for the MBAC, and information systems courses for both the CMBA and EMBA programs.

To date, my research has involved how colors affect the reaction of users to websites, how technical workers use time differently from managers, and how to apply agent-based modeling techniques to management theories.

My goal as a teacher, and a researcher, is to try to make the life of technical people a little better. Having been born, raised, and worked in the US until I was 50, I feel that the US corporate world is a horrible place for the likes of me. I am trying to educate managers to work better with technical people, and to create new empirical knowledge supporting the ideas I teach.

I should probably also mention that I am not in Europe, or France, by accident. For many personal reasons I decided to permanently leave the US. I chose to be in France, and I am still extremely happy with that choice. However, this does lead to some special challenges; 50 years of acculturation in the US system is hard to shed. I chose to move to Europe because I felt that overall, Europe has a much better society than the US. That does not mean that there are not a few things I bring from the US that have value. The challenge is adapting those things to a European system which is dramatically different from all of my past experience.

While doing all this, I also found the time to be a semiprofessional violist. Mostly I have played in symphony orchestras of various sorts, while on occassion I also played in the pit for musicals, was part of a string quartet in the Rice MOB (Moving Owl Band), played chamber music and solos, and even played in cineconcerts for a while (playing live music for silent movies). I read a lot. I listen to a lot of music of pretty much all genres, but with a decided special interest in classical music (especially the Baroque period) and art rock. I love cats. I tolerate dogs. I dislike children (at least American children). Amazingly, I am married. In fact, twice, to the same woman. We have a total of 20 years together as I write this in 2018.

This blog will begin as my reflections and work as I progress through the pedagogical certificate training program at IÉSEG. I expect it will continue after that point, as well. Whether it will ever be read by anyone else, I have no idea. :-)