Introduction
Understanding my background will provide some context to the rest of this book. I will walk through my education, professional accomplishments, and major milestones in my life.
In my junior year of high school, I determined I wanted to go to college. I did not know for sure what I wanted to do, but I thought I had an aptitude towards physics, chemistry, aerospace engineering or electrical engineering. The grades came easy in math and science without much work. Because I came from a very modest background, I would be the first person in my family to attend and hopefully graduate from college. I did not have a very broad perspective of higher education at the time. My parents were very supportive, but did not know better either.
I applied to the state university, University of Rhode Island (URI), as my only choice. I knew I would have to pay for college myself and URI was the only state school that had engineering and science programs. After a semester of general science courses, I chose electrical engineering as my major.
Since I was financing college on my own, so at 17, I joined the US Marines Reserve program and shipped off to Paris Island, SC during the summer of 1987. Within the next 5 ½ years I worked odd manual labor jobs, graduated from URI with my BSEE, and served in Operation Desert Storm. Serving in the military was my first experience with leadership.
After graduation I started my professional career at a company called American Power Conversion (APC). It was a local company with a lot of energy at a time when the US economy was not doing well . When I joined in 1993 the company had just achieved $50M in revenues (fiscal year 1992) and when it was eventually acquired in 2006 by Schneider Electric for $6B, revenues were almost $3B. I worked there for 17 years and had the opportunity to take on many challenging roles mostly in sales management or marketing management. During that time I learned many of my basic professional skills from mentors, observing others, and my own successes and mistakes. After Schneider Electric purchased APC I was transferred to a group under a French manager. I had the opportunity to travel globally and really appreciate how business is done in other cultures.
During this time I went through some personal changes as well. I was married in 1996; still married today. We had a daughter in 1998, another daughter in 1999, a son in 2002, and another son in 2005. This is flavor of leadership requires very different skills!
While at APC I tried starting an MBA program at URI twice. Both times I had to drop out because of career advancement opportunities that required relocation. In late 2010, I began to sense that some of my career opportunities might be limited because I was not a French national. At about the same time an Eaton recruiter called and I was lured away and accepted a position as a Global Segment Manager. The position required relocation from Rhode Island to Raleigh.
After establishing myself at Eaton, I have been allowed to re-start an MBA program. As of August 2013 I secured a new position as a Product Line Manager.
In my junior year of high school, I determined I wanted to go to college. I did not know for sure what I wanted to do, but I thought I had an aptitude towards physics, chemistry, aerospace engineering or electrical engineering. The grades came easy in math and science without much work. Because I came from a very modest background, I would be the first person in my family to attend and hopefully graduate from college. I did not have a very broad perspective of higher education at the time. My parents were very supportive, but did not know better either.
I applied to the state university, University of Rhode Island (URI), as my only choice. I knew I would have to pay for college myself and URI was the only state school that had engineering and science programs. After a semester of general science courses, I chose electrical engineering as my major.
Since I was financing college on my own, so at 17, I joined the US Marines Reserve program and shipped off to Paris Island, SC during the summer of 1987. Within the next 5 ½ years I worked odd manual labor jobs, graduated from URI with my BSEE, and served in Operation Desert Storm. Serving in the military was my first experience with leadership.
After graduation I started my professional career at a company called American Power Conversion (APC). It was a local company with a lot of energy at a time when the US economy was not doing well . When I joined in 1993 the company had just achieved $50M in revenues (fiscal year 1992) and when it was eventually acquired in 2006 by Schneider Electric for $6B, revenues were almost $3B. I worked there for 17 years and had the opportunity to take on many challenging roles mostly in sales management or marketing management. During that time I learned many of my basic professional skills from mentors, observing others, and my own successes and mistakes. After Schneider Electric purchased APC I was transferred to a group under a French manager. I had the opportunity to travel globally and really appreciate how business is done in other cultures.
During this time I went through some personal changes as well. I was married in 1996; still married today. We had a daughter in 1998, another daughter in 1999, a son in 2002, and another son in 2005. This is flavor of leadership requires very different skills!
While at APC I tried starting an MBA program at URI twice. Both times I had to drop out because of career advancement opportunities that required relocation. In late 2010, I began to sense that some of my career opportunities might be limited because I was not a French national. At about the same time an Eaton recruiter called and I was lured away and accepted a position as a Global Segment Manager. The position required relocation from Rhode Island to Raleigh.
After establishing myself at Eaton, I have been allowed to re-start an MBA program. As of August 2013 I secured a new position as a Product Line Manager.
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