When I started writing about my background, I never intended it to be so long.
Formative Years: A Passion for Science Within a Creative and Entrepreneurial Environment
I was born in the south of France and lived in a very small village called Les Michels. I was the first child to grow up in this village in 40 years. Aside from the occasional children visiting their grandparents, my friends were the local (much older) villagers with whom I loved playing Pétanque and visiting their homes in search of sweet treats and conversation. My French father was a master jeweler and artist with a store in Aix-en-Provence. My American mother had been a translator working in Geneva with the American Joint Distribution Committee before running the jewelry business. I grew up surrounded by art, various languages, and listening to business conversations – something that continues today. By the time I was 6 or 7 years old, I had already learned how to solder and made my own little works of art. My passion, however, was collecting fossils and minerals, some of which were collected on my hunts in the local forest, and all kinds of science, including geology, anthropology, and paleontology. The educational system at the time was strict and rigid. Teachers judged a child’s abilities and “guided” them towards a specific future. Mine was to be a writer or journalist because I supposedly lacked the math skills to go into science or engineering. Shortly after and for only slightly related issues, we moved to Austin, TX.
New Beginnings: A New World and New Opportunities
Though my mother had always spoken English to my sister and I, we had never had to speak it on a full time basis. So, here I was in 4th grade, in a new school, in a new country, and in the middle of the school year. Where I struggled a bit with English, it turned out I was way ahead in math compared to the other kids. English became much easier, math was encouraged and the only limitations were those imposed on myself. At that time, I also met the 3 boys who would become my lifelong friends. They did not quite know what to do with the French kid, but we hit it off anyway. America became my land of opportunity and my passion for science and engineering blossomed. As I got older, I would visit my dad’s jewelry and art store on 6th Street in downtown Austin and, when possible, work behind the counter selling to clients.
Tough Times: Resilience Turns to Grit
Fast forward to my teenage years, and one tragedy later, my mother, sister, and I are alone, and it’s time to pull together. My mother became a traveling salesperson while I stayed home and took care of my sister. My mother sold gold chains to jewelry stores in the Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas regions. During the summers, she would take me or my sister with her on these business trips and I saw how she developed long-lasting, trusted relationships with her clients. Honesty, transparency and adaptability turned many of her clients into friends.
Remarried, the now four of us moved to Houston. I started a new and academically demanding high school as a junior. I learned some hard lessons that required adaptation and resiliency to overcome, namely I could no longer coast and make good grades. As a magnet school, I was able to take advanced (AP) language, math and chemistry classes. Though my work, personal, and academic life was difficult, I made it through. I placed out of my first semester of college before entering the University of Texas at Austin’s electrical engineering program. Throughout my entire time at school, I worked year-round to pay my bills, books, and tuition, as my parents did not have the means to support me during that time. My last college job was at Applied Research Labs in the SONAR division. It also became my first job after graduating with my BSEE w/ honors.
Hard Core Engineering: I Didn’t Know It Couldn’t Be Done
My first major project as a full-time design engineer was to design an entire beamforming system using 56 digital signal processors (based on Analog Devices’ first SHARC processors). A few of the older engineers and technicians told me it was an impossible task, but I figured that if that was my assignment then someone thought it was doable … somehow. With a great team, we completed the project and it became one of the key systems used in the world’s first 3D SONAR system and deployed in the Navy’s NR-1 submarine.
This pattern of finding solutions and success even in the face of exceptionally difficult engineering and business challenges carried me through National Instruments, Silicon Labs, Impinj, and every job thereafter. However, from the beginning, I realized that no matter how smart or creative I may (or may not) be, the team around me always made the magic difference. I worked hard to establish a strong esprit de corps in my teams by leading by example, treating people fairly, meeting them on their ground, and ensuring they understood their role’s importance in whatever adventure we were on together. We delivered and did great work. During this period in my professional development, I began finding immense satisfaction in mentoring people.
Exploring Art and Science: A Parallel Path to a Demanding Career
As someone with interests in and passions for a wide range of subjects and disciplines, I was bound to return to my roots of art, science, and entrepreneurialism. I will never forget the words uttered by my wife, Crystal, during my first stint at Silicon Labs, “Why don’t you get a hobby?” The truth was I needed more creative stimulation and while we were attending a downtown Austin art fair, we passed a booth of fused glass art. One introductory class later both Crystal and I jumped in with both feet – for her as a vocation and for me as an avocation. I loved developing new techniques and creating complex and beautiful works of art and jewelry. When possible, I would join her in selling at various fairs across Texas. My mother’s lessons served me well and thus began a decade-long master class on marketing, sales, graphic design, web development, business development, psychology, and many other skills.
After a fateful weekend afternoon of channel surfing, I ran across the show “Meteorite Men.” From the moment I realized I could collect rocks from space, I was hooked. I soon started selling meteorites as part of my hobby to afford better and more important specimens. I also jumped in with both feet to learn more about the science. My high school AP chemistry served me well, and slowly, over time, I accumulated knowledge and understanding. This process also brought me closer to the scientists doing cutting-edge research on everything from the origins of primordial life to the formation of planets. I was making friends with actual rock stars and making inroads selling meteorites with museums and institutions around the globe. My collection and network were growing, and I was thrilled.
I have always maintained that one should lead by example and roll up our collective sleeves to get the job done. Whether I was working at a new startup or an established company, the skills developed outside of “work” came into play inside of “work.” The blending of my creative side with my practical analytic side (with a fair bit of stubbornness and empathy) meant I could solve complex technical and business problems, even when they involved stakeholders with conflicting expectations or opinions.
Transitions and Reinventions: An Always Learning Attitude
While I experienced some major transitions in my high-tech career in title and functional roles, such as moving from design engineering to project management and eventually into product and business marketing, the really big reinventions were just around the corner. After ending my second stint at Silicon Labs, we decided to return to Austin, TX to be closer to family and friends. During this time, Crystal strongly encouraged me to start working independently. The plan I had in mind was to diversify my risk and pursue my avocations as full-time business enterprises. I became a full-time high-tech business consultant and a meteorite dealer, mainly to research labs and institutions worldwide. Two completely orthogonal businesses that continue to this day. While this combination is truly unique, it offered me stability and continuing insights where one helped the other, even in the most indirect ways.
On the meteorite business side, there were many clients and each provided more opportunities to learn and adapt. These clients included private collectors, museums, and government-funded and private research institutions located literally around the globe. Though the collector community is culturally incredibly diverse, it is still dominated by men. Becoming an accepted member of the research/academic community allowed me to experience what can only be described as diverse diversity for the first time in my career. Beyond the politics and squabbles found in all groups of people, I was now part of a community that equally respected and celebrated its members’ contributions, insights, and discoveries based on merit – regardless of politics, gender, religion, race, or age. That is not to say that this community is perfect or does not still have systemic problems, but from my perspective, they are way ahead compared to the other communities I have observed or been part of. The welcoming nature, inclusiveness, and diversity of this group of people continue to inspire me.
On the consulting side, my main client from 2016 to 2023 was, and still is, one of the top electronic distributors in Asia. This multi-$B organization of about 700 to 800 people spread out across various countries enabled me to really understand the value of leadership under various conditions and circumstances, the organizational challenges of large companies, and the value of cooperation with people who share similar values but have different (complementary) skills and experiences. I also consulted for smaller US-based and international companies and startups with various goals and value propositions within the high-tech and med-tech sectors. My biggest takeaway was that shared success relied on two fundamental requirements my clients needed to meet:
- Fully support the entire discovery process – including the findings that were hard to hear.
- Provide their active support and insights to co-realize the desired outcome.
In other words, my best consulting clients were the most coachable, and the most coachable clients achieved the best results for themselves, their teams, and their organizations.
Building Consensus: In a World of Chasms and Schisms, I Choose to Be the Bridge
The impetus to becoming a leadership coach was the realization that my greatest professional accomplishments centered more on the people I mentored and the highly effective/collaborative teams I brought together and less on the specific products we developed and sold. My emphasis on the former, however, clearly led to success in the latter. I then also realized that, more fundamentally, my entire career was spent on building bridges between ideas, disciplines, people, silos, companies and communities. Open-minded explorations and conversations always seemed to lead to the best results.