Professor of management.
Author. Neighbor.

1 · Northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin

Born in Duluth and raised on both sides of the border: on Lake Minnesuing in northwest Wisconsin, and in Duluth, where my dad worked the whole time and we had a house from the time I was fifteen. Graduated second in a class of twenty at St. Croix High School. Worked auctions for my parents from age five, and a hardware store in Two Harbors after that.

2 · Harvard and Minnesota

Social Studies at Harvard, a thesis on the forces behind NAFTA, then a master's and Ph.D. in human resources and industrial relations at Minnesota's Carlson School.

3 · Business

Procter & Gamble, First Bank, Cargill, Sun Microsystems in the dot-com years, Wells Fargo, and a nonprofit software incubator in Duluth. Every job was field research on how organizations treat people.

4 · Dominguez Hills

At CSU Dominguez Hills since 2007: professor, department chair, acting associate dean, statewide senator, and faculty founder and interim faculty director of the Innovation Incubator. Now books, AI for small businesses, and civic work in San Pedro.