Bio

I grew up in an Amish-Mennonite society skeptical of higher education and advanced technology. But my father – crippled by polio from the age of 10, unsuited for carpentry or work on the farm – became a self-taught researcher, educator, and “technologist” of sorts: a watch and clock repairman. His curiosity rubbed off on me. Well before I started school, I was reading, writing, and disassembling and reassembling pocket watches on the kitchen table. The same incessant three questions have driven me ever since, whether the challenge facing me was setting a pocket watch mainspring, controlling the innards of a nuclear submarine, streamlining a bureaucratic policy, unlocking the potential of a research university, promoting a cyber-privacy business concept, unraveling the riddle of U.S.-Iran relations, or advocating global support to make hydrogen fusion a commercial reality: “What makes it tick?” “How can we make it work better?” and “How can we explain the answers to those who need to know?” I became fascinated by the power of curiosity, the power of innovation, and the power of narrative. All three are tools of creation: of creating the world we choose. This fascination has shaped my career path (if it can be called a path!) at the convergence of communication, advanced science and technology, and entrepreneurship. Specialties: Communications | Entrepreneurship | Strategic Foresight