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I
was born on November 12, 1964 in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. My mother Lottie still lives in my hometown
(and my father Lester passed away in August 2001). I also have
a younger brother Wayne who is a lawyer in Chicago.
I grew up in Sioux Falls, and enjoyed both school and sports.
Starting in junior high school I became more interested in math
and science and began considering engineering as a future career.
I was fortunate to become involved in the Future Problem Solving
Program, a nationally-based program/contest that helps promote
creativity and problem-solving skills. The four-person team I
was on captured the national title twice, and I was also a two-time
national individual champion as well.
Besides academics I was active in various sports, playing softball
and golf in the summer, basketball in winter, and track &
field in the spring (I threw the shot put and discus). In high
school I started playing the banjo and guitar, though not very
seriously.
I graduated from high school in 1983 and was accepted into the
engineering program at Washington University in St. Louis under
the Langsdorf Fellowship, a competitive scholarship I was awarded
upon acceptance. Since I had taken classes at a local university
while I was in high school, my advanced standing allowed me to
complete a BS and MS in chemical engineering in four years.
After graduation I was hired by Procter & Gamble and spent
two years in Cincinnati, Ohio working in one of their product
development groups. I designed Pampers brand disposable diapers
and conducted consumer research to evaluate new designs.
In 1990 I was transferred to Japan to help train new Japanese
engineers in P&G's Research & Development site in Osaka.
After two more years of project management in Pampers I became
the R&D Technical Training Manager, a new position designed
to help improve new hire training for engineers throughout P&G's
R&D sites in the Far East. I spent the next three years designing
and teaching technical courses on topics such as project management,
consumer research, statistics, and ethics. I conducted seminars
in India, China, Indonesia, Austrailia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and
the Phillipines.
Besides training work I also helped top R&D management with
various organizational development activities such as evaluating
performance ratings, promotion rates, and job satisfaction.
In 1994 I left P&G and Japan and returned to the U.S. to
begin graduate school. Fortunately I got a great offer from the
Industrial Engineering department at Stanford, and in the summer
of 1995 moved to Palo Alto. As a graduate student I also found time to play music, and was in an amateur bluegrass band callled the Dirt Clods for several years.
In June 2000 I completed my Ph.D.
and taught at Stanford for a year before accepting a faculty
position at Babson College. I began teaching here in August 2001, promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2007, and served as chair of the Management Division from 2008-2011 and again from May 2014.
I currently teach leadership and organizational behavior at the
undergrad and MBA level, as well as Executive Education. I continue my research into newcomer socialization, social networks, and experiential learning. I live in Millis, MA with my wife Kathy
Harris, daughter Annie, son David, and two cats.