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Department of Political Science
Whether it's a step toward law school or the beginning of a career in public administration, our program is designed to create the leaders of tomorrow.
One of the largest departments in the College of Arts & Sciences with more than 800 undergraduate students and over 100 graduate students, the Department of Political Science offers two bachelor's degrees – one in political science, the other in international studies – as well as the Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.), the Master of Arts in International Studies (M.A.I.S.), and the Ph.D. Programs include American Politics, International Politics, Comparative Politics, Public Administration, Political Theory, and Methodology.
The undergraduate degree in political science or international studies is an excellent background for careers in law, government, teaching, and a variety of other areas.
The MPA Program is the leading program in the state and among the best in the Southeast. Begun in 1968 in response to a growing demand for professionally-trained public administrators at the state and local levels of government, the program has graduated hundreds of professional administrators and public leaders. It is South Carolina's only fully accredited autonomous professional public administration program. The MAIS Program is designed for students interested in a professionally-oriented program geared toward service in governmental, nonprofit, or private sectors – both domestic and international.
The doctoral program, designed to produce leading scholars in the discipline, has produced many distinguished academics and numerous public leaders, both nationally and abroad, the latter because of the department's historic reputation in International Studies.
The department is home to a diverse and distinguished faculty, including three holders of Distinguished Chairs and a large group of young, emerging scholars. Faculty members play prominent roles in many professional organizations and on numerous Editorial Boards, serve as resources for the news media and community organizations, and participate in and direct major University initiatives.
Please tour our website to see all that the Department of Political Science has to offer!


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The students that have gone through a semester of the history of rock & soul with me at Columbia College won't be surprised that their teacher is excited about a documentary debuting this Friday evening on PBS stations. As part of the American Masters series they will air the film Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother Of Rock & Roll. My former students will tell you that nothing makes Teach happier that them telling me they bought a vinyl collection of Louis Jordan or Sister Rosetta tunes. These two artists never get the attention they deserve. And now Sister Rosetta is going to get some much deserved exposure.
She was this human dynamo. A female gospel singer that rocked out playing electric guitar (didn't see many women of any genre playing back then.) In fact on the trailer for this film they mention her influence on Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. Just like your teacher told you. Look closely at this clip and you'll see the amazing blues bass player from Chess Records, Willie Dixon. And some dude playing blues harmonica…on a gospel performance. Just wasn't done. And then Sister Rosetta plays a rock riff on her electric guitar…before there was rock & roll. Go Sister!
How come the nuns never showed us this? Can Can girls for Christ!
In 2005 in the blues tent at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival I went to see Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, Tracy Nelson, Maria Muldaur and others do a tribute to Sister Rosetta.
There is also a biography by the author in one of the above clips. Plus a tribute album called Shout, Sister, Shout, with performances by Joan Osborne, Maria Muldaur, Odetta, Michelle Shocked, Janis Ian, Phoebe Snow, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Marcia Bally, Victoria Williams, and others. Worth checking. Plus there's plenty of Rosetta's recordings available on CD and MP3.
So here's your homework assignment. Check out the documentary Friday night, and download some Sister Rosetta. You won't regret it. If you believe in the creation story, it was the God of Moses that made the birds and the bees. Shout, Sister. Shout. Can I get an Amen?

subset: commoncrawl


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Bob Moon: There's a lot you can do to pass the time in your car these days other than listen to the radio: Talk on the phone, glance at your global positioning system to help keep you on track from point A to B.
Now, Chrysler is coming up with another option: Surf the web. The company plans to unveil a new system tomorrow for its 2009 models which will connect wirelessly to the Internet.
It's hoping the strategy will help increase what have been very disappointing sales, but as Ashley Milne-Tyte reports, safety advocates are afraid it'll cause a lot more than computers to crash.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Chrysler's sales are down more than 19 percent this year. That's worse than General Motors or Ford.
George Magliano directs automotive industry research for North America for Global Insight. He says ideally Chrysler would boost sales by making better cars, but in the meantime, he says, introducing some cool technology could give the company an edge.
George Magliano: It might convince a few extra buyers to buy a Chrysler product instead of going somewhere else and I think it's a good idea.
Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety says he can't believe his ears.
Clarence Ditlow: This is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time.
He says Internet access on the road will be just one more distraction for drivers and that'll lead to more deaths and injuries.
Rob Richard directs global sales and marketing for Mopar -- that's Chrysler's parts and accessories division. He says the technology is meant for passengers, not drivers. He says if drivers want to check email or shop online, they can pull over to do so.
Rob Richard: Our mission here is not to have drivers putting themselves or their occupants or any other drivers on the road in any danger. We are strictly looking at this as entertainment for your occupants.
Ditlow: The answer to that is who is Chrysler kidding?
Again, Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety.
Ditlow: The vast majority of driving in this country is done in single passenger vehicles i.e. there's only the driver, so who else is there to use it but the driver?
He says manufacturers should only allow Internet access in cars when the vehicle is parked.
In New York, I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.


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Erin Donnelly is one of the world's top dating experts and is Style Editor and resident blogger for SingleMindedWomen.com and DatingDossier.com. If you're a little wary of all that "love yourself" mumbo-jumbo, this witty and frank guide to 10 dating mistakes is for you.
©2009 Puttenham Ltd; (P)2009 Puttenham Ltd
"This book offers limited value"
This book offers some very basic dating skills. I did not want to finish it.
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Praise for Dream of a Nation
Dream of a Nation moves us past party lines and into the realm of what is possible. This important work guides even the most disillusioned of us toward innovative measures that, if implemented, could benefit society in amazing ways and make citizen activists out of us all. Inspiring!
— Jennifer Grayson, Huffington Post
At a time when America's challenges seem greater than ever, when polarization threatens to leave us permanently divided, Dream of a Nation reminds us of what we have in common—and all that we can build when we work together.
— Bryan Walsh, TIME Magazine
The perfect blend of text and graphics to spell out what can and should be done to move the country forward. A must read for anyone that wants to be a part of the solution.
— Publishers Weekly
The most important thing humanity can do is believe in itself. That we can grow, we can change, we can rouse ourselves in time to make big changes happen. Dream of a Nation encourages movement in this direction. It offers hundreds of ideas and examples of how smart, committed and daring we can be.
— Alice Walker
Dream of a Nation is a rare gem. If you can only read one book on how to address
the big challenges of our time, this is it.
— Noelle Skodzinski, Book Business Magazine
— David Korten, co-founder of the Positive Futures Network
I've been doing activist work for 45 years, and I've never seen anything as comprehensive, visionary, useful, accurate, visually appealing, collaborative and timely.
— Greg Speeter, Founder, National Priorities Project


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Rebecca Shaw has written another compelling story in the acclaimed Tales from Turnham Malpas series - beguiling novels that add a liberal dash of darkness to the warmth and humour of village life.
©2000 Rebecca Shaw; (P)2000 Soundings
"NOTHING like a Joanna Trollope or Maeve Binchy nov"
I found this in a search for books similar to those by Joanna Trollope or Maeve Binchy. This was a huge disappointment. The plot wanders, there is no character development. Every so often, right in the middle of the 'action', the reading stops and three distant bells and music are heard. What?
The performance couldn't fix the bad writing, but really, the bells and music are just terrible
"As always, very entertaining."
A gripping storey. Well described characters. sad to see residents of the village pass on but new and interesting characters come into the village. A good read.
"Easy listening"
Fairly predictable but pleasant story, well performed but the ghastly music between chapters was annoying!
"good read"
or listen should i say ...
was looking for a follow on after completing all the miss read books, a nice, more adult version.
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I am single says Aditi Rao Hydari
I am single says Aditi Rao Hydari, Aditi Rao Hydari says i am single, Aditi Rao Hydari dating actor Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao-Randeep Link Up, Aditi Rao relations, Aditi Rao-Randeep relationship, Aditi Rao-Randeep love affair, actress Aditi Rao Hydari dating actor Randeep Hooda
Actress Aditi Rao Hydari, who is said to be dating actor Randeep Hooda, says she is fond of her "Murder 3" co-star but she is not dating anyone at the moment. "Randeep is a great co-star. I am fond of Randeep, but I don't meet him often. He is busy and I am also busy with my work," Aditi said. "All I can say is that he is somebody I am fond of. I don't like to talk about my personal life, but I would say I am not seeing anybody and I am single," she added. There has been a lot of speculation about her marital status and her relationship with Randeep, but Aditi seems to be unperturbed. "If I think about gossip, I can't concentrate on work. Gossips don't affect me, but actually it does.
People cook up stories and they don't cross check, the stories are not true. I have stopped reading news. I have a good relationship with journalists, but I would like to say we are also human beings and even we feel bad," said the actress. Her next is "Boss" with Akshay Kumar and she says the film is a mix of everything. "I am playing a college girl, who is fun loving. This is a film which is a mix of everything – action, comedy and drama. I did the film to have fun and experience larger than life film," said the actress who has been part of small budget movies like "Yeh Saali Zindagi" and "London Paris New York" as well as a biggie like "Rockstar". Directed by Anthony D'Souza, "Boss" also features Ronit Roy and it is slated for an October 16 release.


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If the future of the advisory business--and the future of the independent broker/dealer industry--is all tied up with efficiently providing customized wealth management services through a tight relationship with a key partner, then Dave Root and Carrie Kuntz are living that future now. Many of the family office services that they provide to their middle-class millionaire clients are made possible, they say, through the expertise of their broker/dealer, though their unique approach to serving clients had its genesis in steps they took to make their own hectic lives a bit less complicated.
The two are business partners and co-founders of D.B. Root & Company, a wealth management firm based in Pittsburgh at which he's the CEO and she's the president. The firm currently serves about 350 households, with two or three clients per household, and has an estimated $950 million in assets under management.
"Our clients are individuals as opposed to institutions, primarily families. I would say that more and more of our client base would be described as middle-class millionaires, and we would define that segment as families that have between one and $10 million," explains Root. "In practically all instances we're managing assets, and I would say that's our core competence, and it's been our core competence since we started the firm in 1994, but we've branched out from there and now have other disciplines in house that we can offer and bring services to our families."
Root and Kuntz didn't start off with a business plan aimed at what Root calls "the working rich," but when they analyzed client roster it became clear just who they were serving.
"I think it's just an evolution of how wealth is being created in this country, that the fastest growing class of people in terms of wealth is what we call the mMillionaires--the middle class millionaires," adds Kuntz (see "The Family Office for the mMillionaire Family," sidebar, p. 72).
As these clients have accumulated wealth, they've also acquired advisors along the way--accountants, attorneys, business evaluators, insurance agents--and what Kuntz says D.B. Root provides for their clients is either all of those services under one roof or at least the services of a professional quarterback to coordinate all those services into one coherent wealth management plan.
A Family Office for Those Who Aren't Filthy Rich
One of the things that set D.B. Root and Company apart from many other firms that call themselves wealth managers is the range of services available in-house. The firm has had a CPA in its office for 10 years to prepare tax returns and provide comprehensive tax planning. She also serves as the firm's controller and has created a bill-paying service for clients. Then there's the in-office attorney.
While many advisors are probably thinking that they just couldn't take on the cost of adding such services, D.B. Root has found a way around that. "The relationships are unique in that both individuals--the attorney and the CPA--are independent," explains Root. "They have their own practices. We provide office space and don't charge for any of their overhead. The agreement is that they provide a certain discounted fee schedule to our clients in return for their office space and support services. We don't share fees. The arrangement is to benefit the client."
"It helps us to do our job on the investment advisory side a lot more efficiently, especially with the tax services here," interjects Kuntz.
"This was all an outgrowth of Carrie's and my own personal situations," says Root. "We have built a firm to suit ourselves in a family-office way--accounting and bill paying, estate planning and legal advice--and we are bringing that to our clients in a comprehensive, almost holistic service. We feel that this can be a new paradigm for the industry."
Root says that although they still maintain relationships with outside professionals, he and Kuntz had often been frustrated with making professional referrals and then not being kept informed about how the matter had been resolved. "Out of that frustration we said, 'Let's establish our own in-house relationships and manage it in such a way that it's more efficient and a better service to the client, because we're all under one roof and sharing information.'"
"We're still willing, when a new client comes on board, to work with advisors that they have in place," stresses his partner. "But we make it clear that we're going to be quarterbacking the relationship and we're going to be calling their other advisors. And instead of just referring out, or assuming that the other advisors are going to communicate with us, we take the responsibility to initiate that communication."
The desire that Root and Kuntz have to simplify things for themselves as well as their clients led them to become affiliated with the independent broker/dealer Commonwealth Financial. "They make our lives so much easier, particularly in the back office--all the basics of trading, account reconciliation, reporting," says Root enthusiastically. They're the workhorse behind the scenes."
"One thing that Dave and I have realized over the years is that if you're going to run a successful business, you have to be focused and you have to know what your mission is," says Kuntz. "You have to know what the economic engine is that's driving the business. Trying to do this on our own would be a huge distraction from what we're really trying to do."
The partners are particularly effusive about the technological benefits that Commonwealth has brought to the firm, including providing account aggregation and Web site support. In addition, they mention a Commonwealth project to provide a virtual office for clients, not just of D.B. Root, but of all their affiliated advisors, that would provide a single secure vault to store all important electronic financial documents.
Institutional Investing for Middle-Class Millionaires
D.B. Root & Co. is fee-based, with the majority of revenue coming from asset management fees which range from 125 basis points on the first half million dollars down to 60 basis points on accounts above $3 million. The firm also charges consulting or retainer fees for the financial planning work they do. Including the two owners, there are six planners on staff, all holding CFP credentials.
When it comes to investing, D.B. Root takes a tactical approach to asset allocation that gives its mMillionaire clients (with assets of between $1 million and $120 million) options often only available to much wealthier individuals.
"We believe in diversifying broadly between seven different asset classes--asset classes that are probably more familiar to institutions," explains Root. The asset classes include private equity, absolute return, managed futures "through real assets using natural resources," as well as more traditional items like domestic and foreign equities and fixed income.
"Our objective is to structure a client's portfolio so that we have specified weightings in asset classes that don't correlate to each other," he continues, noting that they've tried very hard to make sure there's not a lot of overlap between asset classes. "We want to own things that don't correlate with each other. The end result is that we want to produce a rate of return consistently over and above inflation each and every year so that we can meet our clients' needs--both income and capital accumulation--in the most consistent way possible. It has to be measured as a return over and above inflation. Our target rate of return is 4% to 6% above the rate of inflation; that way we can cover income needs as well as incorporate a hedge against inflation."
Kuntz stresses that the concept isn't unique--institutions have long employed this approach to diversification, but that most individual investors think their options are strictly limited to stocks and bonds. As a result, when the firm takes on a new client, there's often a certain amount of education that has to be done because most are totally unfamiliar with the institutional approach.
Investment vehicles used are primarily professionally managed funds run by individual fund managers with established track records, "methodologies that we understand," and low cost structures. The firm also uses some private funds and ETFs.
"Where we probably add the most value is with relationships that we have with independent managers that we've worked with for years and years that have demonstrated the ability to add value within their disciplines," he says.
While Root believes that asset managers can't afford to remain passive, he's not a day trader by any means. "It's active in that, and this is going to sound trite, it's not passive," he says of his investment style with a slight laugh. "It's active in the sense that every day we're managing our allocations."
He says rebalancing is probably done two or three times a year and that the turnover ratio works out to between 30% and 35%.
"Our decision-making is not systematic," chimes in Kuntz. "It's not as though we are targeting certain allocations and automatically rebalancing. We take a much more macro view to what's going on with the markets and with investments."
That macro view and its approach to diversification have allowed D.B. Root & Co. to remain calm in an unsettling environment for many investors. "For the last year we've had a 12% weighting in U.S. stocks, we've had a 15% weighting to foreign equities, so our exposure to the equity markets has been fairly minimal, riding through this very difficult and challenging period," says Root by way of example. "By contrast we have an overweighting in what we call the real asset category, the natural resource category--that would include real estate and managed futures. A 28% allocation there has assured that not only have we done a good job of diversifying the portfolio over the last 12 months it's assured that our clients have earned positive returns--and fairly healthy positive returns, returns that are consistent with our goal of 4% to 6% above inflation."
Removing the Burden
That calmness in the face of market turmoil should not be confused with a lack of concern. There are always concerns over factors that are outside an advisor's control, ranging from terrorism to natural disaster to recession. In the face of all these potentialities, Root says he want to make sure that their clients have the right asset allocation to preserve capital. "Our clients are this middle-class millionaire group," he says. "They're successful professionally, they've achieved a certain level of wealth, but by no means are they done accumulating wealth, nor, more importantly, are they secure that they have enough money. Most of our clients in this segment would be described as insecure."
"And sometimes rightfully so," adds Kuntz. "We're looking at mMillionaires and they're generally people that have made a lot of money, saved a lot of money, and have not worried about spending a lot of money because they're making, on average, a half a million dollars per year. So there is definitely a transition when they hit retirement, where they're used to spending whatever they want and now they have to live within a budget. That's one of the challenges we have. If they want to maintain, or think they can maintain that same level of spending, even though they've created a lot of wealth, typically they haven't created so much wealth that they can have a half a million dollars of income for 25 or 30 years."
Root's biggest worry for these clients is inflation. "In our opinion inflation has been understated for years and now is really once again stepping to the forefront in terms of not only becoming an issue but, potentially a real problem, not the least of which is rising gas prices, rising food prices, and the cost of travel," he says. "All of these things impact the lifestyles of our mMillionaire clients."
The partnership that Dave Root and Carrie Kuntz share was forged when they worked together as a team at their previous employer, Bill Few & Associates, and in conversation it's obvious how well they mesh. Kuntz describes Root as the firm's visionary and credits his entrepreneurial energy with continually pushing things forward. She says her own role it to take those ideas, help cultivate them, and ultimately put them into action.
"It's a great balance of core competencies," she says, "because my background and my expertise really lies in the organizational structure of the firm, the positioning of the talent within the firm, and making things happen.
"It makes for an interesting partnership because we're coming at each other with different views," Kuntz continues. "He's stretching my thinking and I'm grounding his thinking. It makes for a great partnership. It allows us to be successful because we're always playing devil's advocate with each other."
"But we absolutely share the same vision with respect to our clients, how we serve them--it's the same goal always," Root says in conclusion. "Long statement short: We want to unburden the mMillionaire of all their financial concerns."
Managing Editor Robert F. Keane can be reached at email@example.com.


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I'm working with Flash which is one of Macromedia's products. I have made some mini games with it for example Terris, now my dream is to build up games with C++ but I know C++ not much. To tell the truth I'm a bit tired of learning things such as operator overriding of C++ cos my game rarely meet these. What should I learn exactly ? maybe VC and DirectX ?
thanx for any suggestion~


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Four people were arrested Thursday morning after police found a trove of swords, guns, knives and ammo at an apartment in Brooklyn, according to the NYPD.
Officers executing a search warrant at an apartment on Dahill Road arrested the suspects after finding the arsenal along with prescription narcotics and marijuana about 7 a.m., according to the NYPD.
The weapons seized include a 9-mm assault rifle with a defaced serial number, a loaded .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun, two revolvers, eight swords, a machete, and more than 200 rounds of assorted ammunition, police say.
Officers also found an assortment of knives and pellet guns.
The suspects all face multiple weapons charges. They've also been charged with marijuana possession.
Published at 5:56 AM EDT on May 16, 2014 | Updated at 6:57 AM EDT on May 16, 2014


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finishing off the last of the sampler from my 12 teas of Christmas box. So yum!
This is the first tea that I'm brewing in my Libre Teas mug too! I feel like these mugs are perfect for things like Mate since mate doesn't get bitter as it continues to steep.
Yummy, chocolate-y malty-ness!


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Expanding possibilities for people with vision loss
An Online Chapter from
Essential Elements in Early Intervention Visual Impairment and Multiple Disabilities, Second Edition
Review Clinical Vision Assessments for Young Children
JVIB September-October 2017, Vol. 111, No. 5
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Orientation and Mobility Techniques
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JVIB May-June 2017, Vol. 111, No. 3
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Keys to Educational Success
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The American Foundation for the Blind removes barriers, creates solutions, and expands possibilities so people with vision loss can achieve their full potential.


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The husband and I just made sushi for dinner, and now we're lazing with a movie. We were craving something different and caffeine-free so we grabbed this out of the tea chest.
Steeped, this is quite… odd. There may be some eggnog spices, but this doesn't scream eggnog to me. I taste maple syrup, cream, honey, and cinnamon. To my tastebuds, each sip feels a little sinful – I should be pouring this over pancakes, not drinking it!
I tried adding a dash of milk, and that did nothing to change the flavor. If anything, it makes me even more determined to make pancakes tomorrow morning, with a nice glass of milk to go with them.
As for the tea, this is not going to be a staple.


text: As finals week (and first semester!) comes to a close, I thought I would share a bit about my favorite building on campus: Gilman Hall. Gilman is home to the humanities department here at Hopkins and is named after JHU's first president, Daniel Coit Gilman. I had my Intro to the Museum and Italian class in Gilman this semester, and my intersession class – International Relations and the American Civil War.. Read More


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Temple Mountain's East Summit
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Temple Mountain's eastern summit and the connecting ridge as seen from near the western summit. The eastern summit looks higher from here but the western summit is home to two benchmarks. San Rafael Swell, Utah. October 2010.
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ECE Alumnus Cho inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame
ECE News
Charlie Johnson, ECE ILLINOIS
Story Highlights
- Alumnus Alfred Cho was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
- Cho is known as "the father of molecular beam epitaxy."
- Cho holds 85 patents and has received the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology.
Alfred Cho (BSEE '60, MSEE '61, PhD '68) is no stranger to orange and blue. Cho's older brother and sister both graduated from Illinois, and his uncle before them. By the time Cho came to Champaign-Urbana from Hong Kong to pursue his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, his Illinois roots already ran deep. And they only grew deeper as he went on to receive his bachelor's, master's, PhD, and later an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering, all from the University of Illinois.
When it was announced in February that Cho was to be inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame, it's fair to say that the University of Illinois had something to do with it. "I was very fortunate to go to Illinois," said Cho. "There are great facilities for students to have a hands-on experience at Illinois, but the really unique thing is the first class teachers they have. You really get a broad education that prepares students to face the ever changing world we have."
The National Inventors Hall of Fame class of 2009 was inducted during a ceremony on May 2 in Mountain View, California. The inductees for 2009 include 15 other inventors from across the UnitedStates, including five who are being honored posthumously.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the invention of the integrated circuit, a device invented by Illinois alumnus Jack Kilby (BSEE '47), the 2009 class of inductees represent those who have greatly advanced integrated circuit technology. "It's a great honor to be inducted, and I feel very humbled to be selected," said Cho. "I'm especially honored because the people nominated for the Inventors Hall of Fame are selected by the Patent and Trade Office based on the contributions of their patents to the nation's welfare. I feel very honored that they consider my patents that useful." Cho, who holds 85 patents, has also been the recipient of the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology.
Cho, known as "the father of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)," is being recognized for the development of MBE, a process by which crystals can be layered on top of one another, atom by atom, to achieve greater precision. The process of MBE begins when crystals are deposited or "spray painted" on a heated substrate. As more and more crystalline beams are deposited, layers begin to form atom by atom, which allows for extraordinary smoothness and control of the thickness and composition of the device's structure. This control becomes a highly valuable tool when it comes to developing high quality photonic devices as well as in the field quantum research. "It has impacted science from fundamental science all the way to the application of useful devices that we use today," said Cho.
The MBE technique is responsible for many firsts in the field of technology, including producing the first field effect transistor that operates at microwave frequencies and several types of diodes. MBE-fabricated devices are used in cell phones and are found in almost all CD and DVD players. And because MBE produces compounds not found in nature, it is useful in a variety of applications in the research of quantum physics.
Cho developed the MBE process while an engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories (now Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Laboratories) where he eventually became vice president of semiconductor research. Ironically, when Cho began developing the technology, most didn't see a practical application for it. "When I started developing it 35 years ago, I was told that this technology was totally useless. That the layers were too thin to be commercially viable," said Cho. "But, as time goes on, technology is always changing, and it shows you that if you have a vision and believe in yourself, good things can happen. Science is only limited by your imagination."
Cho, along with his collaborators, have also worked on a new technology called the quantum-cascade laser which can be used to detect the presence of gas, pollutions, and explosives. He also envisions the technology having medical applications, possibly being small enough to act as a pocket sized "doctor on the go." Just breath on the laser and it can give you a daily health reading, along with recommended medicines or activities. "You would basically have personal medical attention wherever you go," said Cho.
Even though Cho has long since left the Urbana-Champaign area, he remains tied to the Fighting Illini. He met his wife, Mona Willoughby, while a student. Cho has also added several branches to his orange and blue family tree. Three of his four children also graduated from Illinois.
It gives new meaning to the phrase, "Illinois Loyalty."


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Geology and Geochemistry
In June 2001 geology and geochemistry were successfully merged in Edinburgh at the novel Earth System Processes: A Global Meeting (June 24–28, 2001), coconvened by the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of London (cosponsored by the Edinburgh Geological Society, University of Edinburgh, and Geological Surveys of the U.S. and the U.K.). The concept was that the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s was only a first step in understanding the whole Earth system. In order to understand the dynamic whole, interdisciplinary studies of interactions between its component parts are required. The sessions were designed to emphasize the linkages between geologic, chemical, physical, and biological processes, along with their social and economic implications.
The linkages between geology, geochemistry, and the biosphere are clearly displayed by the submarine hydrothermal vents that spew hot water and deposit minerals that form chimneys. A report from a project of the University of Washington and the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, to characterize a suite of large sulfide chimneys from the Juan de Fuca Ridge was published during the year by John Delaney and Deborah Kelley of the University of Washington and seven coauthors. Using a centimetre-scale navigation-control system, optical- and sonar-imaging sensors, and real-time navigation techniques, the researchers produced the highest-quality fine-scale map of a complex with more than 13 chimneys ranging in height from 8.5 to 23 m (1 m = 3.28 ft). Water venting from the chimneys reached 300 °C (570 °F). Dense clusters of tubeworms, snails, crabs, and microbial communities covered the structures. In a remarkable feat of remote engineering in water 2,250 m deep, the team sawed off and recovered four samples of chimneys about two metres in length. These were digitally imaged, cored, split, and immediately subjected to geochemical and microbiological examination. The research team discovered complex vertical zones of minerals, networks of flow channels lined with sulfides, and microorganisms distributed within well-defined mineral zones. The proportions of specific bacteria varied from the hot interior to the cooler exterior of the chimneys and were clearly related to, and perhaps even modifiers of, the geochemistry of their local environment.
The largest submarine hydrothermal towers yet discovered were described and explained in 2001 by Kelley, Donna Blackman (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), and many coauthors from the U.S. and Europe. The submersible research vessel Alvin revealed to its three astonished crew members a large field of white towers at a water depth of 700–800 m. This "Lost City Hydrothermal Field" extends across a terrace on the steep southern wall of the Atlantis Massif, about 15 km (1 km = 0.62 mi) west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 30° N. It consists of about 30 pinnacle-like chimney structures, the largest reaching 60 m in height and more than 10 m in diameter. In contrast to the black, high-temperature, sulfide-rich chimneys associated with the volcanically active oceanic ridge axes, these white towers vent relatively cool water of less than 70 °C (160 °F); the water precipitates carbonates and hydrated minerals, and there is no evidence for recent volcanism. The mineralogy of the carbonate chimneys and the fluid composition are consistent with reactions occurring between percolating seawater and the mantle rock that underlies the Atlantis Massif. The water is heated by the chemical reactions that convert the peridotite rock to serpentinite. Although few mobile creatures were found around these structures, there are abundant, dense microbial communities. These low-temperature carbonate chimneys may be widespread on older oceanic crust, supporting chemosynthetic microbial populations in environments similar to those in early Earth systems when life first evolved.
There was a new claim for the oldest rock on Earth, arising from the geochemistry of tiny minerals, zircons, in Western Australia. Igneous gneisses there are about 3,750,000,000 years old. The zircons, collected from a series of sedimentary rocks formed in a large delta, had previously been dated at 4,276,000,000 years. Detailed investigations by two teams from Australia, the U.S., and Scotland (Simon Wilde and three coauthors, and Stephen Mojzsis and two coauthors), however, yielded an age of 4,404,000,000 years, closer by 128,000,000 years to the formation of the Earth. Measurements of isotope concentrations were made on the sliced zircons by means of a precise ion microprobe that bombards the mineral in tiny spots, releasing atoms that are then weighed in a mass spectrometer. Both groups also measured the oxygen isotope ratios in the zircons and concluded that the minerals were derived from preexisting igneous rocks that had been involved with water at near-surface conditions. The existence of liquid water within 150,000,000 years of the Earth's formation 4,550,000,000 years ago was unexpected, given the intense bombardment of the Earth by asteroids at the time. Perhaps there was early formation of oceans and primitive life-forms, which were periodically destroyed on a global scale and then reformed through an interval of about 400,000,000 years earlier than life on Earth is currently thought to have begun.
Insight into the periodic disruptions caused more recently by asteroid impacts was provided by the study of helium in a sequence of limestones deposited in deep seas between 75 million and 40 million years ago. Graduate student Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, working with Kenneth Farley at the California Institute of Technology, and Alessandro Montanari of the Geological Observatory, Apiro, Italy, studied the limestones near Gubbio in Italy. This series of limestones, composed predominantly of the calcite skeletons of plankton, includes a finger-thick clay layer at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods corresponding in time to the extinction 65 million years ago of 75% of all living species, including the dinosaurs. The sharp boundary at the top of the Cretaceous limestones indicates an abrupt reduction in productivity of plankton, which then rather suddenly increased above the clay layer with different plankton species forming more limestones. Analyses of the rare element iridium in the clay layer, reported in the early 1980s, had provided the first evidence that the mass extinction was caused by the impact of an extraterrestrial body, accompanied by a huge explosion and the global distribution of dust through the stratosphere. The new analyses of isotopes of helium confirmed that no comet shower had passed near the Earth at that time, and a single large extraterrestrial body was thus left as the destructive agent. The analyses also permitted calculations of rates of sedimentation, which led to the conclusion that, following the impact and destruction of global life, the food chain became reestablished in only 10,000 years. Repopulation of the ocean was then achieved within a short time interval. This rapid turnover contrasts with the longer time interval recognized by many paleontologists for the progressive extinction of larger land animals, such as the dinosaurs.
Some significant steps for the parallel development of experiment and theory were achieved during 2001 in defining the framework of phase relationships that control the geology and geochemistry of rock-melt reactions. Two publications by Tim Holland (University of Cambridge), Roger Powell, and R.W. White (both of the University of Melbourne, Australia) presented a comprehensive thermodynamic model for granitic melts in a synthetic system with eight oxide components, including water. The internally consistent dataset with software Thermo-Calc makes possible calculation of the melting relationships for many rocks through the entire thickness of the continental crust. Manipulations of the complex phase diagrams permit the evaluation of processes, including the extent of melt loss during high-temperature metamorphism.
The continuing dependence of thermodynamic databases on new experiments at higher pressures and with additional components was demonstrated by Robert Luth (University of Alberta). The nature of the melting reaction in the Earth's upper mantle under conditions in which carbon dioxide is present is significantly affected by the position of a particular reaction among calcium-magnesium carbonates. Earlier experimental measurements for this reaction at pressures up to 55 kilobars (1 kilobar = 1,000 atmospheres) and a temperature of 600 °C (1,100 °F) had been extrapolated by calculations using Thermo-Calc, yielding the result that dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate) would not be involved in mantle melting at pressures greater than 60 kilobars, corresponding to a depth of 180 km. When Luth measured the reaction experimentally, however, he determined that dolomite does persist as the carbonate relevant for melting reactions in the upper mantle. The presence of dolomitic carbonate-rich melts in mantle rocks beneath an island off the coast of Brazil was demonstrated in 2001 by Lia Kogarko (Vernadsky Institute, Moscow), Gero Kurat (Natural History Museum, Vienna), and Theodoros Ntaflos (University of Vienna). Textures indicated the formation of immiscible (incapable of being mixed) carbonate, sulfide, and silicate liquids.
Experiments by Roland Stalder, Peter Ulmer, A.B. Thompson, and Detlef Günther of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, on the effect of water on the conditions for melting in the Earth's mantle provided convincing evidence for the occurrence of a critical endpoint on the melting reaction, at a temperature of 1,150 °C (2,100 °F) and a pressure (130 kilobars) corresponding to a depth of about 400 km. At that point the melt and the coexisting aqueous fluid phase become identical in composition and properties. Despite the advances in thermodynamic calculations, experimental data were still insufficient to calculate the high-pressure behaviour of aqueous fluids under those conditions.
An intraplate earthquake of magnitude 7.7 (moment magnitude) shook the Indian state of Gujarat on the morning of Jan. 26, 2001, India's Republic Day. Called the Bhuj earthquake, it was one of the deadliest ever recorded in the country. At least 20,000 people were killed, 166,000 injured, and 600,000 displaced. More than 350,000 houses were destroyed; property damage and economic losses were estimated in the billions of dollars.
The Bhuj earthquake occurred on a fault system adjacent to one on which a major shock (moment magnitude 7.8) took place in the Great Rann of Kachchh in 1819. Its focus was determined to be as deep as 23 km (1 km = about 0.62 mi). In a review of geophysical data from seismology, geology, and tectonics, Roger Bilham and Peter Molnar of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Vinod K. Gaur of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, demonstrated how this earthquake was triggered by the release of elastic strain energy generated and replenished by the stress resulting from the ongoing collision of the Indian plate with the Asian plate, which began between 40 million and 50 million years ago. In this scenario the top surface (basement rock) of the Indian plate south of the Himalayas flexes and slides under the Himalayas in an uneven, lurching manner, similar to the behaviour observed in rapidly converging lithospheric plates beneath the ocean.
The researchers also showed, on the basis of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite measurements, that India and southern Tibet were converging at a rate of 20 mm (about 0.8 in) per year, consistent with the rate deduced from concurrent field observations. Moreover, they pointed out that the convergence region along the Himalayas held an increased hazard for earthquakes and that 60% of the Himalayas were overdue for a great earthquake. The Bhuj earthquake did not occur along the Himalayan arc and so did nothing to relieve the accumulating strain on the arc. An earthquake of magnitude 8 would be catastrophic for the densely populated region in the Ganges Plain to the south.
In addition to the Bhuj earthquake, major earthquakes (magnitude 7 and greater) with high casualties occurred on January 13 in El Salvador (magnitude 7.7, with more than 800 people killed and 100,000 homes destroyed) and June 23 off coastal Peru (magnitude 8.4, with at least 100 people killed—many by tsunami—and 150,000 homes destroyed).
Sicily's Mt. Etna, Europe's largest and most active volcano, erupted on July 17 in a dramatic display that continued into August. The flow of molten magma, which emerged from fissures along Etna's southeastern slopes, caused tremendous damage to the tourist complex of Rifugio Sapienza and set fire to a cable-car base station. The July–August event, which was the first flank eruption of the volcano since 1993, aroused wide interest from both the scientific community and emergency managers. It occurred from five short vent segments over a linear distance of six kilometres at an elevation of 2,950–2,100 m (9,680–6,890 ft) and discharged 30 million cu m (1.1 billion cu ft) of new magma. Significant losses were avoided when the lava stopped a few kilometres short of the first major mountain community, Nicolosi. Interest for scientists lay in the simultaneous eruption of two magma types, of contrasting chemistry and residence time in the volcano, and in the wide diversity of eruption intensities observed over short distance and time scales.
The economically crippling eruption of Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat continued through the growth and collapse of the lava dome in 2001. This long-lived (since 1995) and complex event prompted the publication of a major analytic memoir by the Geological Society of London. The even more protracted eruption of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, which began in 1983, also carried on unabated throughout the year.
Christopher G. Fox of Oregon State University and colleagues reported on the first detailed observation of the eruption of a submarine volcano—Axial volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the Oregon coast—by a seafloor instrument serendipitously positioned very close to the event. The instrument, a Volcanic System Monitor, carried several sensors, including one for measuring bottom pressure, which served as an indicator for vertical deformation of the seafloor associated with magma movements. Although the instrument was overrun by a lava flow, the scientific data were retrieved.
The mantle, that part of Earth that lies beneath the crust and above the central core, constitutes 82% of Earth's volume and 65% of its weight. Progress was being made in the use of seismic tomography to infer temperature anomalies associated with thermal convection in the mantle. Analogous to the use of X-rays in medical tomography, seismic tomography yielded accurate maps of variations in the velocities of seismic waves produced by earthquakes. By combining this information with a knowledge of the elastic properties (wave-propagation velocities) of various mantle mineral phases as a function of pressure and temperature, scientists could make accurate estimates of the temperature distribution in Earth's mantle. Such velocity data for a number of mantle mineral phases, such as (Mg, Fe)SiO3 (perovskite) and (Mg, Fe)2SiO4 (ringwoodite), were being obtained in various laboratories.
Surface geophysical data (e.g., geodetic measurements and observed tectonic plate motions) and global seismic tomographic models were together providing useful information on the flow and thermochemical structure in the deep mantle. In this respect, A.M. Forte of the University of Western Ontario and J.X. Mitrovica of the University of Toronto suggested the existence of a very high effective viscosity near 2,000 km depth, which would suppress flow-induced deformation and convective mixing in the deep mantle.
Leonid Dubrovinsky of Uppsala (Swed.) University and associates suggested that the observed heterogeneity in composition, density, and thermal state (revealed by seismological data) at Earth's core-mantle boundary and in the inner core could plausibly be explained by chemical interaction. They based their reasoning on experimental data on the chemical interaction of iron and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) with MgSiO3 (perovskite phase) under simulated conditions of pressure and temperature at the core.
High-resolution images gathered by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), which began orbiting the planet in 1997, yielded exciting views of massive layered outcrops of sedimentary rock, as thick as four kilometres, as reported by Michael C. Malin and Kenneth S. Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. Although the age relationships of these erosional landforms and the processes of deposition and transport that created them, including the possible role of liquid water, remained to be ascertained, their discovery provided some initial clues to the previously unknown geologic and atmospheric history of Mars.
Mars currently lacks a global dipole magnetic field like that of Earth, but the detection of strongly magnetized ancient crust on Mars by the MGS spacecraft was indicative of the presence of a liquid core and an active magnetic dynamo early in the planet's history. Building on this information, David J. Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology reported important new interpretations and insights about the Martian interior—the nature and history of the iron-rich Martian core and the influence of the core on the early climate and possible life on Mars. According to Stevenson, heat flow from the Martian core also appeared to have contributed to volcanic activity and feeding of mantle plumes, as in the case of Earth's core.
Meteorology and Climate
A revived La Niña—the condition of below-normal sea-surface temperatures dominating the central and eastern equatorial Pacific—influenced the weather over parts of the Earth early in 2001. By April equatorial temperatures had returned to normal, which suggested that La Niña, which had begun in 1998, had finally ended.
The upward trend in global surface temperatures continued, while NASA estimates from land and ocean data for the first ten months of 2001 had the year on track to be the second warmest on record. In contrast, lower tropospheric temperatures as measured by satellite averaged close to the 1979–98 mean, suggesting no significant recent warming trend above the surface. La Niña played a role in aggravating long-term drought over the southeastern United States, particularly Florida, where the 12-month period that ended in April was the third driest in 107 years. Drought also developed over the northwestern U.S. during the 2000–01winter as blocking high pressure aloft steered storms to the north and south. November–April precipitation in the region was the second lowest since records began in 1895.
For other parts of the U.S., winter brought abundant snowfall, especially in the Northeast and the Great Plains. Major winter storms struck the Northeast in February and March, with a particularly severe storm burying New England and the northern mid-Atlantic region on March 4–5. A wet and stormy April in the upper Midwest led to serious flooding and considerable property damage along the upper reaches of the Mississippi and other rivers.
The first tropical storm in the Atlantic basin, Allison, made landfall June 5 on Galveston Island, Texas. Although the storm was relatively weak, its historic two-week odyssey across the South and up the mid-Atlantic coast cost about $5 billion and left 50 dead. The storm, which turned Houston's streets into raging rivers after depositing up to 890 mm (1 mm = 0.04 in) of rain, ended up as the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.
In central and western Texas a persistent high-pressure system aloft brought drought to the region for the second consecutive summer. Rainfall totaled well under 50% of normal in both June and July, and temperatures above 37.8 °C (100 °F) worsened the dryness. Rains exceeding 300 mm in late August and early September ended dryness in eastern Texas but triggered flooding.
Over the central U.S., the high-pressure ridge responsible for the heat and dryness in the southern plains expanded northward in late July and early August, bringing dangerous heat to the upper Midwest. The ridge further broadened, which resulted in a nearly coast-to-coast heat wave August 6–9. Nationwide, widespread heat during June–August resulted in the fifth warmest summer on record for the U.S., while above-normal temperatures during September–November across all but the Southeast caused autumn to rank as the fourth warmest on record. Drought intensified along the Eastern Seaboard in autumn as rainfall totaled under 50% of normal from North Carolina to Massachusetts. In contrast, a series of Pacific storms in November and December eased drought in the West.
The Atlantic tropical storm season was active, with 15 named storms of which 9 became hurricanes. The bulk of activity occurred in the last three months of the season—September to November—during which 11 of the named storms formed. For the second consecutive year, no hurricanes made U.S. landfall. Two storms, Barry and Gabrielle, brought some flooding to Florida but also relieved its long-term drought.
In Central America drought in June and July damaged crops from Nicaragua to Guatemala. Hurricane Iris, a category 4 storm packing winds of 233 km (145 mi) per hour, caused severe damage to southern Belize on October 8. The tropical depression that later became Hurricane Michelle brought extremely heavy rains to portions of Nicaragua and Honduras at the end of October. On November 4, Michelle slammed into the costal islands of Cuba as a category 4 hurricane and into the main island as a category 3 hurricane. Michelle was the strongest hurricane to hit Cuba since 1952.
Across the Middle East and south-central Asia, another dry winter and spring resulted in countries from Syria to Pakistan enduring a third consecutive year of drought. Much of the region experienced four straight months (January–April) with precipitation below half of normal. The drought slashed crop production and depleted rivers and reservoirs. In Algeria, an intense storm struck the north coast on November 9–11. Up to 260 mm of rain led to catastrophic floods and mud slides in Algiers, leaving more than 700 people dead.
Crops dependent on rain failed almost totally in Afghanistan again in 2001. Major drought during the first half of the year also affected northern China and North and South Korea. March–May rainfall in Beijing totaled about one-third of normal. The opposite extreme prevailed in southern China, where torrential June rains exceeding 800 mm killed hundreds of people. An active storm season also affected the region, with Taiwan enduring damage from Typhoons Chebi in June, Toraji in July, and Nari and Lekima in September. Other storms hit the Philippines, China, and Japan, with two typhoons, Pabuk and Danas, striking the Tokyo area within one month of each other (August 21 and September 10). In the Philippines, Typhoon Utor left more than 150 dead in July, and Tropical Storm Lingling caused at least 180 deaths in early November. Monsoon flooding hit South and Southeast Asia, although on a smaller scale than in 2000. India suffered severely again as floodwaters affected millions during July and August.


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Groovy represents an agile dynamic language for the Java 2 Platform. The language itself has many of the features that people like so much in languages such as Python, Ruby, while it makes them integrated for Java developers through a Java-like syntax.
Mainly Groovy is designed to help you accomplish what you want on the Java 2 Platform in a fun way, through the integration of scripting language directly into it.
One example is related to shell scripting on Groovy, which highlights the full power of Java platform.
We are back with our blog JustGroovy.org and happy to share articles on programming and tech world again.
Thank you for or the members of our previous forum who have been next to us all the time!


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News, Vision & Voice for the Advisory Community
With this co-creation of a de facto ISO-9000 for succession plans, smaller RIAs may have more options and metrics on the back end
November 13, 2012 — 7:07 AM UTC by Kelly O'Mara
A little less than a year ago, Rudy Adolf, founder and chief executive of Focus Financial, flew to St. Louis to hear an idea that Adam Birenbaum, CEO of Buckingham Asset Management, a $4.5 billion Focus partner firm, had for acquiring potentially hundreds of new firms — and, at the same time, solving the succession problem that continues to stymie the industry. See: Buckingham expedites turnkey 401(k) strategy by buying a fellow DFA TAMP.
Now, Focus Financial Partners LLC is rolling out that idea: a patent-pending succession program, Focus Succession Solution, that will allow advisors to sign on with a Focus partner firm.
"We have the solution here to what is probably the biggest problem in the industry," says Adolf.
Exercising your options
Here's how it works: A smaller RIA or advisor goes through a self-assessment process and signs on with one of the Focus firms — at which point a price as a multiplier of revenue will be agreed upon. The small RIA, which would most likely be without buyers otherwise, then has a contract giving it the option to sell to that Focus firm when it chooses.
In the meantime, the RIA goes through an annual certification verifying that it is succession-ready and prepared for the transition. See: What exactly the CEOs of HighTower, Focus Financial and Dynasty Financial revealed when they shared a stage in Las Vegas.
In that way, neither the RIA nor its clients need to worry about the future. After going through that whole process, on the other hand, the RIA could always choose to not exercise the option, simply selling to another firm or handing its practice over to heirs. See: Roll-up-like deals back on the rise in first quarter as RIAs look for succession plans.
"It is in many ways much like an insurance policy," says Birenbaum. Ron Carson has unveiled a program with a similar concept. See: Ron Carson launches roll-up/TAMP-like venture with Envestnet, TD Ameritrade and Advizent as puzzle pieces.
Getting ramped up
Already St. Louis-based Buckingham has taken advantage of this program, signing on CLM Capital Management, a $35 million RIA based in Sanford, Maine. CLM has simply signed the agreement, but has not yet exercised its option to sell to Buckingham, says Birenbaum, instead planning to exercise the sale option and complete the transition to Buckingham in five to seven years.
"They wanted to have this back-up in place," says Birenbaum.
That may be beneficial to CLM's peace of mind, but it also has obvious benefits for Buckingham. Signing on RIAs looking for succession plans is a way for a Focus partner firm to "grow our business," says Birenbaum, and "potentially even gain talent."
Where better?
While the contract is made directly with a Focus partner firm, such as Buckingham, leads come from both the partner firm and from Focus. Birenbaum says that Buckingham will be actively approaching RIAs and smaller firms it feels would be a good fit. But, it will also get referrals from Focus, which will act like a "funnel," he says. As advisors come to the roll-up looking for a succession plan, they will be referred to one of the Focus firms that best matches their needs based on geography, investment strategy, service model, average client size and client niche.
Buckingham has another huge advantage with this plan. Buckingham Asset Management Advisor Services, a branch of Buckingham, serves as a turnkey asset management program with outsourced services for about 120 advisors worth another $13 billion. Those advisors are some of the first firms to which Buckingham is offering this succession program, hoping to acquire these firms as their principals retire and leave the industry.
"That's a natural base for us to proactively go after," says Birenbaum. "What better place for them than with their current partner?"
Buckingham has been on a roll lately, acquiring six firms in the last two years, including a profitable merger in Silicon Valley. See: Why sudden wealth at Facebook is gushing into a $17-billion RIA and triggered a merger of two DFA giants. "We're just getting ramped up," says Birenbaum.
First among equals
Any firm could come along and buy up smaller RIAs one-by-one, but there are a couple things that Adolf thinks are going to make this program different and more successful.
"There's really nobody in the industry but us who can create this type of solution," says Adolf.
First, he says, "anybody can apply to participate," but upon application they have to go through an analysis of their state of affairs. That diagnostic, FIRST (Focus Index of Readiness for Succession and Transition), evaluates how prepared a firm is for a transition and, essentially, whether it would be a good acquisition. It evaluates five areas, including the client base, staffing and infrastructure.
Adolf emphasizes that Focus will work only with firms that are a good fit and don't have any issues such as regulatory challenges. But, the FIRST evaluation is also the tool that firms will use to certify their preparedness annually after they sign on with a Focus firm. See: Focus Financial gets its first beachhead in HighTower's backyard — buying an exhibit-A organic-growth RIA with a hankering to go inorganic.
One-offs hard to do
The certification is the second major difference, Adolf says, and something that those RIAs will be able to advertise to clients in order to assure them of their long-term viability.
Most importantly, however, New York-based Focus, which has more than $52 billion in assets among its partner firms, has the scale, resources, and capital to enact a large number of very small transactions. Focus will extend the capital to its partner firms in order to do the acquisition once the option to buy has been exercised. The returns on that capital will, then, ultimately make the money back for Focus, who owns a portion of the cash flow of each of its partner firms.
Since Birenbaum approached Focus with the idea, the firm has spent the last year creating template forms and intake processes to make these acquisitions run smoothly — something it has experience with.
"Unless you know how to do M&A and transition portfolios and take care of all the details very efficiently," says Adolf, it can become an overwhelming and time-intensive challenge. "One-offs are very difficult to do."
Focus the first
David DeVoe, of DeVoe & Co., agrees that the value Focus brings is its national footprint, its acquisition experience, and its large amounts of capital. Perhaps the biggest factor in Focus' success is simply that it thought of it first.
"Seemingly, Focus is the first," DeVoe says, to roll out this kind of large-scale systematized succession program. "The major components are in place," he says.
Once up and running, the whole process will be overseen by Michael Paley, managing director at Focus, who will also be rolling out the program at Schwab's IMPACT conference this week. See: RIAs reveal their M&A war stories with 200 Schwab IMPACT attendees.
"Focus really brought the resources on how to execute this thing," says Birenbaum. "They put all the pieces together."
No ties that bind
The only downside for the Focus partner firms is that they could go through all the work of signing on a firm, meeting with them yearly, and then see them opt not to exercise their sell option, or sell to a different company.
Birenbaum says he takes the optimistic view that it's not a lot of upfront work, but "ongoing conversations with someone who might merge with you." If an RIA decides to go with a different succession plan and not exercise its option to sell to the Focus partner firm, then the partner firm, such as Buckingham, simply has right of first refusal, he says.
DeVoe says the fact that the seller can simply choose someone else or never exercise its option to sell is just "the nature of these types of transactions."
For the potential tuck-ins, the downside is that the price the Focus firms are offering may, understandably, be lower than what they could get elsewhere, because it comes with a guarantee. (It also might not be lower, says DeVoe, since pricing depends on a variety of factors.) Because the RIAs looking for succession plans can always explore other buyers, the Focus contract simply "establishes a floor," says Birenbaum.
The price agreed on is "very transparent and simple," says Adolf, based on some multiple of revenue negotiated at the signing of the contract. If that revenue goes up or down, then the price would go up or down accordingly. That way, if there's an emergency or unexpected death, the family need not worry about negotiating, because a price and plan are already in place.
The Focus program may not end up being the best succession plan for every RIA, but it can be a back-up plan for any RIA.
"It's a new and unique opportunity for exiting advisors to explore," says DeVoe. But, he adds, there's no reason not to sign a deal with a Focus partner if it makes sense and, at the same time, look at other succession plans. "It wouldn't be inappropriate to do both."
One thing everyone can agree on is that the industry needs some kind of large-scale, innovative solution to the succession problem. More than 70% of RIAs, says DeVoe, don't have a written succession plan. "There's a huge number of firms who need help," says Birenbaum. See: Favorite succession plan of RIAs remains the same: none at all.
When Birenbaum thought up the idea, he realized it didn't make sense for these firms to sell directly to Focus, because then there would still be continuity problems after retirement. But, it did make sense for a larger Focus partner firm to step in.
"We can practically act like mini-Focuses," Birenbaum says of the large Focus partner firms. The Focus firms, he says, can "provide solutions [to other RIAs] like Focus provides for them.
How many solutions is Birenbaum going to provide? Enough that he hopes eventually he may have to bring on a full-time person to deal with managing all these succession contracts.
No limits
"As many as we can find like-minded quality firms," says Birenbaum. "We're not going to put a limit on this."
Birenbaum's thinking seems without limit these days as he goes after deals big and small.
Mentioned in this article:
Focus Financial Partners, LLC
Consolidator/Roll-up Firm
Top Executive: Rudy Adolf
Share your thoughts and opinions with the author or other readers.
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Brumos Racing Takes Second Consecutive Podium; Magnus Earns Fourth; Horton Leads
Watkin Glen, N.Y., August 11, 2012 – It was clear from the results that Porsche teams came to Watkins Glen International with a lot of fight in them. Porsches were in the heat of the battle from the first turn to the last of the two-hour Continental Tire 200 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race at the famous Upstate New York road course. All three of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars entered in the GT class of the event played major roles with Brumos Racing earning its second consecutive podium finish having just narrowly bested the Magnus Racing Porsche to the checkered flag. Horton Racing, having had a career-best starting spot added to their success by leading a lap before contact with a Daytona Prototype competitor ended their podium run.
Andrew Davis (Athens, Ga.) took the green flag in the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from the seventh starting position. Having lost their quickest lap in qualifying as a result of a fuel relay problem during Friday's time trials, Davis was eager to show the strength of the Brumos operation. He wasted little time working his way to the front of the field. When the first caution flag waved just short of the mandatory 30-minutes required for a driver to be in the car to earn championship points, Brumos rolled the dice and left the 2011 GT champion on track. Davis inherited the lead and kept it for 15 laps. When he handed the car over to teammate and fellow 2011 champion Leh Keen (Charleston, S.C.) it set the stage for a battle royal with the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche for the checkered flag - a struggle that ultimately ended with the Brumos car on the podium in third-position.
"Hats off to the Brumos crew," said Davis. "They worked tirelessly over the last couple of weeks. They gave us a great car. The Brumos No. 59 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was working really well. I knew that going in. Turn one was exciting because there was some contact and cars spinning everywhere but being on the inside I had an escape route and was able to get by two of the cars I wanted to get by. Then I just chased down the first two cars and I was picking away at them. I just put my head down on the restart and tried to build the biggest restart I could for Leh because I knew we'd need it. From there it was up to Leh. In the end, it was hair-raising from my seat in the pits watching but Leh did a phenomenal job and was able to hold off a really hard charging Andy Lally. Third's great. We're happy with that."
"A great weekend all-around," reflected Keen. "This was our fourth podium of the year and two podiums in a row. The guys have been working really hard and we've had a really good car the last couple of races. At the end, as it always is here in the Rolex Series, it was a total battle. We were just holding on for the podium. The cars running upfront were real strong so I don't know if we had a whole lot for them but I was able to hold-on for the podium. It was a crazy race. I got into some contact and was sort of a pinball between some Mazdas but the car was strong and held up fine. I have to give it to Porsche to take those hits. Andrew did a great job. He handed over the car in a good position."
The Magnus machine used strategy and great driving efforts by both driver/owner John Potter (Salt Lake City, Utah) and 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year Andy Lally (Dacula, Ga.) to put themselves into contention for its own second consecutive podium. The 2012 North American Endurance Champions – awarded at the most recent event with victories at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis – qualified tenth for today's race. Potter moved the car into seventh by virtue of one of his strongest race stints of the season before handing the car over to Lally just after the 30-minute mark. The team was forced to wait until the green flag waved following the first yellow flag period to ensure that they were past the 30-minute window allowing both Potter and Lally to score full driver points. That stop set them back only temporarily.
Once in the car, Lally went on the attack bringing the battle up to the Brumos Porsche in the closing stages. A late race caution closed the gap even further and, with three minutes remaining in the race, the green flag flew with Lally on the rear-bumper of Keen. The two raced hard but clean with Keen taking a narrow edge at the checkered flag. Magnus Racing earned fourth-place, just behind their Porsche counterpart.
"We definitely didn't have a bad day so no big complaints," recounted Lally. "The guys made some great strategy calls early. We were just caught out with some bad luck on our second stop. Montreal should be a great race for us so we look forward to it."
Potter echoed Lally's thought: "I'm happy with the way our team worked together today. We just didn't have the luck we needed to be on the podium. Overall, it was a decent day and hopefully Montreal will bring us more podiums."
The nose-to-tail intramural fight for the podium may have been dramatic but it might pale in comparison to the thrill ride of Horton Autosport during the weekend. In qualifying, the California-based team set the standard for Porsches taking third on the grid with Eric Foss (Dallas) driving. Foss' race would be no less exciting from the start than the Brumos-Magnus battle was at the end. Entering turn-one of the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course "Short Course", the two championship points leaders made contact just behind the No. 73 Horton Autosport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. As the cars careened off track, Foss kept the throttle down and moved up into second-place. He maintained second for the majority of the first 30-minutes.
Having missed the first race of the season the John Horton-owned and managed team had no concern for the point championship and opted to take advantage of the first caution period to make their driver change. The Texan gave the white and red machine over to his teammate Patrick Lindsey (Santa Barbara, Calif.) who would maintain the car's strong performance. Lindsey would lead a lap adding to the list of firsts for the team at this weekend's race. With 16 minutes remaining, the No. 5 Daytona Prototype, not knowing the Horton machine was to his left, made a sudden move directly into Lindsey entering turn six. Lindsey made hard contact first into the inside, driver-side, Armco barrier then spun across the track making a second impact to the outside of the turn. The car's best race of the season was over. Lindsey was checked at the infield care center and released. Horton would have to settle for 11th despite it being a career-setting weekend.
"This was the one year anniversary of us coming to the Rolex Series," commented Foss. "It was good to come back to a race we had run before. My opening stint in the car was great. John Horton made some setup changes to the car after qualifying and the car felt great. I was just pacing myself with Boris [Said, pole sitter and early leader] so to be the fastest Porsche out there felt really good. We were stoked. We really thought we had a good shot at the podium today. It is tough in this series so things happen. We're really happy with how strong we were today but a little frustrated wondering what we have to do to get a break in this series!"
Patrick Lindsey: "The car was fantastic. John did an amazing job of getting the car right for us. Every change was the right move. We had the pace to run with everybody. We were executing on our strategy today which put us right there in the top-five. That's what we wanted. A little bad luck caught us again. Not much you can say about that [the accident] other than hope it doesn't happen again. It was a pretty big hit. We'll just put it behind us and move on to the next race."
The GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series now travels north to Canada for the Montreal 200 At the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The two-hour race is scheduled for August 18 with a 7 p.m. (ET) start.
Source: Porsche Motorsport


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Go Try PointerPointer Right Now
Even if you never lose track of your mouse on screen, you should let PointerPointer help you find it. It's a brilliantly tuned cache of random pictures tweaked to load up a snapshot where a finger locates that pesky mouse pointer. Go there. Go there now.


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Two men who robbed a shop in Harborough at knifepoint have been sentenced to a combined total of more than 13 years in prison.
Carl Latham (39) and Nathan Crewe (25) raided the Spar shop in Coventry Road on January 29 last year, threatening staff with a knife before escaping with £1,600 in cash.
They were also convicted of robbery at the Co-op in Ratby on February 13, when £2,000 was taken and of Sainsbury's in Wigston two days later, when they escaped with £900.
Offences also took place on February 1 at a Spar shop in Barnwell Road, Cambridgeshire when £1,000 was taken and at a Co-op, in Dartford, Kent on February 29, when £1,300 was taken.
In all of the incidents Latham and Crewe entered the stores and threatened staff members with knives before making off with quantities of cash, Leicestershire Police said.
Latham, whose address was given as Hewell Grange Prison in Worcestershire, was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court to eight years in prison.
Crewe, of Catherine Street, Leicester, was sentenced to five years, four months.
Both had pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing.
Detective Inspector David Swift-Rollinson, who led the investigation, said: "These two offenders carried out a number of offences across the county and spreading further afield.
"The incidents were incredibly frightening for the staff and members of public in the stores and I would like to thank them for their help and cooperation throughout the investigation which has no doubt played a part in the conviction of Latham.
"The police investigation involved a lot of work from dozens of officers and departments. I hope today's sentence reassures members of the public that two dangerous men have been taken off the streets."


text: I have a pioneer elite vsx56txi with built in phono is this good or should I get say a cambridge audio phono preamp? I have a Rega P2 with the bias cartridge. Also any suggestions for finding a glass platter for this table? Last but not least would I need shims if I were to put a ortofon 2m red or blue cartridge on this?


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How Has 'The Organization Man' Aged?
The New York Times , January 17, 1999
LOS ANGELES -- William H. Whyte, who died last week, lived long enough to achieve a paradoxical fate for a social critic: the world he once criticized had become the good old days.
Whyte's 1956 classic, The Organization Man, argued that American business life had abandoned the old virtues of self-reliance and entrepreneurship in favor of a bureaucratic "social ethic" of loyalty, security and "belongingness." With the rise of the postwar corporation, American individualism had disappeared from the mainstream of middle-class life.
The Organization Man, wrote Whyte, "must not only accept control, he must accept it as if he liked it."
"He must smile when he is transferred to a place or a job that isn't the job or place he happens to want," Whyte wrote. "He must be less 'goal-centered,' more 'employee-centered.' It is not enough now that he work hard; he must be a damn good fellow to boot."
Young men of ambition submerged themselves in the organization, adopting what Whyte described as a standard litany: "Be loyal to the company and the company will be loyal to you." Whyte noted that the younger generation -- up-and-comers who would be in their 60's today -- considered looking out for job opportunities at other companies gauche. "Such behavior," they believed, "was characteristic of the What-Makes-Sammy-Run type, and the companies would be better off without such people."
Whyte's portrait was damning, or at least depressing. The implicit premise of the book was that the change was permanent: that the Organization Man and all he represented would henceforth define the American character. That Whyte's conformist organization represented the mature form of capitalism was conventional wisdom until fairly recently. We lived, critics and supporters agreed, in what John Kenneth Galbraith called "the technostructure," an oligopolistic industrial state where the future was carefully planned in advance, through either government or private bureaucracy. Technology and capital markets had made entrepreneurship, and unpredictable economic evolution, obsolete. At least that's what the wise men of the 50's, 60's and 70's believed.
Of course, it all sounds like nonsense today. Now we associate technology with change, not predictability. Corporations cherish flexibility, leanness and just-in-time management. "Creative destruction" is the rule. Men -- and, this time around, women -- of ambition seek their fortunes not in bureaucratic conformity but in adaptability, entrepreneurship and job hopping.
This cultural and economic dynamism deeply troubles today's social critics, who seem to prefer stasis. On the right, Pat Buchanan longs for "the kind of social stability, rootedness . . . we all used to know," the world in which his father lived in the same place and worked at the same job his whole life. On the left, the sociologist Richard Sennett writes a book on the "new capitalism" called The Corrosion of Character. The old hierarchies, he argues, gave people a sense of purpose and control, a linear narrative of their lives. Without that, he suggests, "the corroding of character is an inevitable consequence."
Though some might deny it, such critics want to bring back the Organization Man and the orderly, predictable world in which he lived. In economic and social diversity, they see only fragmentation. In business innovation, they discern only disorder. In the fading of "belongingness," they imagine the death of character.
The Organization Man reminds us how easily social critics can confuse passing cultural moments with permanent transformations. But it also provides an antidote to the nostalgia for postwar corporatism. The world we've lost wasn't all today's stability zealots make it seem. "Loyalty" sounds good in the abstract, but it exacts a terrible cost in economic stagnation and personal repression.
The pressures of competition, and a new generation's desire for self-expression, reinvented work. The "goal-centered," individualistic employee returned to the American workplace, as did creativity and enterprise. The world of white-collar work became less certain, but it also became more interesting. Capitalism proved more dynamic, and far more creative, than Whyte expected.


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Bringing back nice memories?
We went from Stranaer to Belfast on a hovercraft, nice to be floating again, last time was in 1957 enroute to NZ from Sydney aboard the Wanganella, no! I tell a lie, it was in 1998 on the inter Island ferry between Savaii and Upolo [Western Samoan] A great time on both/all trips.
Not a hovercraft, Phyllis. Lots of ship under the waterline. I might do a hovercraft jig for you. Good idea!!
Nice to do a ship/tug puzzle again. Excuse my ignorance John, but is this a hovercraft?


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Entre la espada y la pluma. El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega y sus "Comentarios reales" (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2010)
Royal Commentaries (1609, 1617) by Garcilaso de la Vega Inca, the first great Spanish-American writer and the first American historian of the Americas, is considered a key text to understand Inca civilization as well as the impact of Spanish colonialism in the New World. The eleven essays collected in Entre la espada y la pluma include a study by Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel Prize winner in literature, and other leading authorities in history, literature, and anthropology on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the publication in Lisbon (1609) of this chronicle. Their interdisciplinary research and the introduction by the editor offer a distinct approach to rereading this fundamental book, one that strives to place it within a larger cultural context and underscores its modernity. Raquel Chang-Rodríguez (City) is a distinguished professor of Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages at the Graduate Center.
Purchase this book
Submitted on: APR 1, 2010
Category: Faculty Books | Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures


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LOGAN — Northridge ended Logan's 14-game winning streak and hopes of back-to-back undefeated seasons on Friday.
Junior quarterback Nate Kusuda led the Knights to a 41-27 win and racked up 231 yards on 9 of 18 passing attempts for three touchdowns.
"It's all because of the line. I couldn't do that if the line didn't block as well as they did," Kusuda said. "It's a great start for us. If we can prove that we can beat a second-ranked team, I think we can beat anybody."
The Grizzlies drew first blood when quarterback Luke Falk found senior wide receiver Jesse Braddy from 14 yards out to put the Grizzlies up 7-0.
Northridge answered back with a big kickoff return to midfield before Kusuda connected with senior Davey Adams out of the backfield for the 19-yard score to tie the game with 7:34 to go in the first quarter.
Kusuda and the Knights struck again two minutes later on a 52-yard pass to senior running back Dallin Isaacson to go up 14-7.
Not to be outdone, Falk tossed a bomb of his own to junior receiver Taylor Compton with 1:18 left in the first quarter, but kicker Jake Thompson's point-after attempt was blocked to make it 14-13.
Then Northridge started rolling and forced four turnovers.
"The only reason we blew things open there in that second part of the game was they turned the ball over," Northridge head coach Erick Thompsen said..
"We feel very fortunate to get out of here with a win… Logan's probably the best team we'll play all year. We have great respect for them."
Junior linebacker Austin Ricks picked off a Falk pass midway through the second quarter, giving the Knights the ball back on their own 32-yard line.
Kusuda took advantage and hit senior wide out Zach Hayes on a 65-yarder to go up by eight.
Northridge scored 27 unanswered points to take a commanding 41-13 lead into the fourth quarter.
Injuries didn't help Logan.
Falk went out partway in the third quarter after taking a vicious hit on a quarterback sneak and was replaced by Braddy, who had 149 yards passing and two rushing touchdowns under center.
Senior linebacker Chasen Andersen, Utah State head coach Gary Andersen's son and prized in-state recruit, went down on the first defensive play with a possible torn ACL.Comment on this story
"It never helps you, but it's never a reason for your performance to go down," Logan head coach Mike Favero said. "It's part of the adversity that comes with the sport of football. It's part of the luck element. Everybody crosses their fingers and hopes that you never have any injuries, but unfortunately we've had a boatload of them this year and it's our job to overcome that."
The Grizzlies made a game of it at the end, scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter under Braddy, who also left the game with an injury, but the deficit—and turnovers—proved too much to overcome as Northridge won 41-27.


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Nov 16, 2007
anyone got one????? any comments
ive got the LG prada which is kind of similar to the viewty, ive had allot of problems with my fone id go for the sony ericsson k850i
The viewty gets a poor review in this month's T3 mag.
I had the LG prada and returned it after only a couploe of days as it was terrible. If your after a phone to actually use for calls etc and not just look "pretty" I'd avoid the viewty...
i've got one. was a bit worried at first when the guy on the phone bent my arm...its aint all that bad, touch screen is responisve enough and vibrates slightly so you know u touched something. camera is good to. had the phone for over 2 week now, not had any probs.
cheers guys,
ive decided on the k850i....comes tommorow....bye bye w880i
T3 slated the Viewty's camera, especially something about having to rotate the lens manually to zoom, giving the impression it's an optical zoom when it isn't?
They also slated the build quality, saying it was very poor.
In fact, they said the battery cover had the strength of a "ladybug's wings".
I've just got the other half the new Viewty as an upgrade. I was a little sceptical at first after reading the review in Stuff magazine.
She fancied either the SE W910i or the Viewty and after looking at the 2 instore, I must say the LG looks a much nicer, classier looking phone.
Anyway with O2 you get 14 days to try out your new phone as an upgrade, First impression are great, it looks cool, but I would say it's more of a MP3 player, video player and camera than an actual phone, that's not to say that its not a good phone, it's just some people would prefer proper buttons if using it mainly as a phone.
The jog dial around the camera lens is used to skip through the menus as well as the camera zoom, which makes it a little tricky to use as its on the back of the phone when scrolling through things.
Battery life is also a little suspect, but that is mainly down to the large touchscreen, sometimes lasting less than a day.
As for the comment about the flimsy back cover, the cover is actually metal and is thin but quite strong, unlike most other mobiles I've had which have been plastic and definately flimsy!!
Anyway still evaluating it at the moment so will give it another week before making a final decision on it
please do ive got an upgrade due on another contract and although ive had a k850 i still have a fondness for this phone
Well I am a bit of a girl :O
I would not touch a k850i, my business partner is already on his 4th one within 2 weeks ! Just do a search for "k850i problems" !!! Software locks up regularily and turns itself off !
I've had an LG Chocolate for a year now with no problems but cannot comment on the other LGs
Well, I kept the Viewty as it really is a nice phone. I did get a second one sent out as a replacement because I couldn't believe the short battery life. However, the replacement is the same lasting not much more than a day with very little use!!
Considering what it can do though, it's a gripe I can put up with.
Separate names with a comma.


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Governor Quinn fired another shot at his primary rival Dan Hynes Thursday during a speech at the Governor's Conference on Aging.
"We will get the necessary funds to pay our bills," Quinn said. "Even if the Comptroller is blocking my plan."
Last week Quinn accused Hynes of playing politics by not signing off on a $500 million dollar loan to the state.
The governor said Hynes was "lollygagging."
Hynes denied he was "lollygagging" and said he was looking out for the fiscal health of the state.
Hynes reiterated that sentiment today, responding to Quinn's statement.
"I will not use one credit card to pay another credit card," Hynes said, noting that he's working to find a way to pay the state's bills.
Published at 1:13 PM CST on Dec 10, 2009 | Updated at 2:07 PM CST on Dec 10, 2009


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After winning the U.S. Open Sunday, Justin Rose could have easily skipped this week's tour stop in Cromwell.
But then he'd miss out on one of his favorite events of the year.
"This is a tournament that I really, really enjoy," Rose said. "I enjoy coming to Hartford. I feel like it's almost an old-school PGA Tour event. It's got a lot of history to it."
Rose said he loves the course at TPC River Highlands. "I just feel like it's just got a really, really nice vibe to it," he said.
He's also excited to compete in an event such as the Travelers the week after coming up with the biggest win of his career.
This is Rose's eighth visit to the TPC at River Highlands, and he says this will be a nice change of pace from last week at the Open.
"There's a good atmosphere to keep you up, but at the same time this is a course that is really fun to play. It's got its challenges out there, but the challenge is, can you go low when you need to go lower?"
Tomorrow, Rose starts his run at another title.


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up in an integrated neighborhood of Hempstead, New York, a suburb on Long Island. Today, he and his wife, Kathryn, who is also a lawyer, raise their two sons in the ethnically diverse town of New Rochelle in Westchester County, just north of New York City.
Although his father, Hortenius Chenault, graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ken Chenault elected to go elsewhere. "It's probably more that I wanted to do something on my own. My father had an exceptional record at Morehouse, and I think maybe subconsciously I wanted to prove that I could operate in an environment that was different," recalls Chenault.
He says his father took his decision to attend Bowdoin College in Maine well. The elder Chenault was satisfied with the reasons his son wanted to go there, especially after he met the other African Americans who attended the school. Besides, he knew his son was in good company, as one of his acquaintances, the late Benjamin "Benny" E. Mays-then president of Morehouse-had attended Bates College, also located in Maine. "Bowdoin was an all-male school with about 1,000 guys, maybe 30 of whom were black," recalls Douglas C. Lyons, editorial writer for the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a classmate of Chenault's. "Ken was a part of the Afro-Am[erican] Society at Bowdoin. He was there at the debates when guys would gather around talking about what they wanted to do and what was going on at the time. He was involved, but he was focused. Ken worked hard to be prepared. He always impressed us as being prepared. You may not always agree, but he had a handle on five sides of an issue and worked hard at the preparation."
He sharpened his analytical skills and persuasive powers after attending Harvard Law School, where he was moot court champion.
One top executive search firm consultant says Chenault is a confident man who cares about bringing tangible results to his company's shareholders. "If a man at that level-black, white or green-doesn't have a certain amount of ego or fire, then he can't do the job. You have to be pleasant to be around, but decisive and clinical about your decisions while remaining humane, and he has all those qualities."
He got the "fire" from his father, whom, he says, was very achievement-oriented, and impressed upon him the need to maintain his personal and professional obligations and commitments. His mother, Anne, taught him how to listen and be open while maintaining balance in his life. Says Chenault: "You don't get too high about the highs, and you don't get too low about the lows. They taught me to focus on performance and not on myself."
When asked what his father would think of his ascension to the pinnacle of corporate success, he says, "He'd be proud but not boastful. And he'd tell me to keep moving and looking forward."
It's advice that Chenault is heeding to this day, as he focuses forward to 2001.


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National Ground Water Assn. & People to People will lead exchange opportunity
Kevin McCray, CAE, CEO of the National Ground Water Assn., will be leading an overseas cultural and professional exchange opportunity in September 2013.
People to People Citizen Ambassador Programs is coordinating a delegation of water resource professionals who will travel to Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, India from September 22 to 30, 2013.
This delegation will seek to increase collaboration with Indian professionals and organizations on topics of mutual interest in the water resources arena. This will be combined with cultural activities highlighting the sights and sounds of the country. Delegates will enjoy insider views of the water resources profession in India and experience the culture in ways that most travelers never do, from exploring small, local neighborhoods and the Taj Mahal to observing professional counterparts in their element.
Further details on the itinerary can be found at www.peopletopeople.com/ngwa [6].