CCS was honored to showcase 50 individuals and activities during our 50th Anniversary in 2017-2018 to share our rich history. Take a look at the amazing people responsible for making our unconventional College possible!   

I was admitted to UCSB and was contacted shortly thereafter to consider the Mathematics major at CCS. Obviously, I was honored to be invited and impressed with the opportunity to be in such an intimate environment with small class sizes and outstanding professors, my favorite aspects of the College.

After graduating from UCSB—where I received in parallel with my CCS Mathematics degree an Electrical Engineering degree from the College of Engineering—I attended the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, receiving an MBA in 1992. CCS as well as the College of Engineering at UCSB helped me develop disciplined and independent study skills, which I put to good use during my graduate program. The small class sizes at CCS increased my understanding of a number of core topics, which probably increased my overall GPA, an essential component of my ability to get into a prestigious graduate school.

A memorable moment that stands out from my time at CCS is sitting in a small classroom (maybe with three other students) in a Number Theory class. The professor told us he was going to teach us Mathematics starting with the assertion that there is a unit, and also there is the absence of a unit, establishing the existence of ‘one’ and ‘zero’, from which he proceeded to build all mathematics (addition, subtraction, etc.).  I’m a terribly earth-bound guy, so I remember thinking, this is super cool and interesting, but what am I going to be able to do with this in the real world?

My career track has been working in Marketing at Hewlett-Packard, running a computer clone manufacturer in Minneapolis, then heading a database company following the venture capital industry (VentureOne), which I sold in 1998 to Reuters and then again from Reuters to a private equity company in 2001.  I have been involved in angel investing and was President of a steel building manufacturing company for a short time. For the last 9-10 years, I have been in residential real estate in West Los Angeles, a departure from years in technology and information services.  Although my current work doesn’t directly relate to my studies at the CCS, my ability to solve problems was clearly developed during my years at the CCS and UCSB.

Although my current work doesn’t directly relate to my studies at the CCS, my ability to solve problems was clearly developed during my years at the CCS and UCSB.

My advice to current and future CCS students:

-       Learn to solve problems and build your confidence at solving whatever problems are thrown your way, because life and career creates a ceaseless stream of problems to solve.  You want to be able to rely on your abilities.

-       Take the hardest path available while you are young.  Study topics that challenge you the most, not the least.  Push yourself while you’re young and can take it all. 

I greatly respect the College’s dedication to nurturing and developing a small number of bright students without fanfare and mostly off the radar. It’s an honorable mission, and I’m honored to be included in CCS and its history.