VisualCV

Educator and administrator skilled in strategic and academic planning, as well as in faculty relations.  Proficient in analyzing social, economic, and political trends—domestic and international—with potential implications for a university. 

Credentials and interpersonal skills provide the necessary gravitas to interact with officials in government, industry, and academia.  Extensive experience in information technology, public speaking, and some experience in media relations.

Board Member
State of Utah's Ethnic Services Advisory Board

Salt Lake City, Utah - 1997

Appointed to the board during the administration of Governor Mike Leavitt.

• Updated the board's bylaws.
• Outlined methods for surveying ethnic minorities' needs.
• Recommended strategies to increase the Board's visibility and influence among civic and political constituencies.

Bishop
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Terms: 1987-1990 and 2001-2004  (I provide this information to showcase my experience managing volunteers in a non-profit organization)

Presided over congregations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (290 members) and Laie, Hawaii (930 members over 39 months).

• Assigned and released personnel to and from positions of voluntary leadership in congregations of about 200-300 members.
• Conducted monthly correlation and training sessions with the presidents of the eight main church service organizations and humanitarian assistance programs at the local (i.e. parish) level.
• Facilitated planning sessions to strategize ways to overcome local obstacles to the implementation of the church's programs.
• Counseled individual members of the congregation about personal challenges--marital differences, financial difficulties, mental and emotional distresses, etc.
• Raised funds from members of the church and others for welfare assistance, proselytizing activities, facilities maintenance, and operational expenses.

English poet John Donne (1572-1631) wrote these now famous lines about the interconnected nature of the human experience:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. ... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."  (Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII)

These words penned in 1623 can be applied to organizations and professionals in the 21st century.  No organization is an island, and no professional can afford to behave like an island, at a time when the contemporary economy has reached an historically unprecedented level of interconnectedness.  In this information-driven state, significant events in faraway nations—especially negative ones—can impact organizations around the planet in a matter of minutes.

Here are a few of my insights and scenarios on this new century:

The 21st century is "happening" in Asia.  Due to what I call "Asian-Centric Gravity Waves" (see my video clip - 21st Century Happening in Asia) , organizations and professionals aspiring to thrive in this century might have at some point to either work in Asia, or have frequent interactions with Asian organizations.
• Speed + Global Awareness + Sagacity = Power
  • "Sagacity" means the ability to foresee trends with precision—to imagine what no one has imagined yet, or to imagine something that few people have noticed, but that no one has acted on it.  And by "power" I mean the ability to have somewhat greater control over one's destiny.
  • Here are two possible examples:
    • Today it is possible to bake artisan breads in one's kitchen in Dallas and sell it to connoisseurs in Tokyo (I would have done it, but my bread is lousy).  Where in the world could your organization's products or services be offered tomorrow?
    • The number of elderly people living in the richest economies is about to surpass the number of children.  Already there are more children living in the poorest economies than elderly people.   In rich nations of the not-too-distant future, elderly persons with dwindling pensions might have health care and other essential services provided by professionals born in formerly poor countries but educated in rich ones.
  • No one can tell for sure whether these above-mentioned scenarios will actually happen.  But information technology empowers creative people everywhere to bypass calcified hierarchies and effect radical changes in business and society.  Organizational effectiveness—and consequently survival—depends on identifying, hiring, empowering, and retaining professionals with this kind of mentality.