Candidate for
Board Member; Mount Diablo Unified School District

I was born in Akron, Ohio. I was married in 1970 and have three children and four grandchildren. I moved to Concord in 1986. Two of my children and one grandchild graduated from Concord High. I have one grandchild in the third grade, one in pre-school and one that will start pre-school next year.

I received a BA degree from Westminster College in Pennsylvania, with a major in Accounting and minors in Business Administration and Math. Upon completion of college, I served four years in the Marine Corps, one in Viet Nam, before entering the work force.

My first position was as a cost accountant with Motorola in Phoenix, AZ. It was a great place to learn the basics and inter departmental cooperation.

I then moved to Courier Terminal Systems as a Cost Accountant/Financial Analyst. This was my first position in a financially challenged company. I was able to direct a 50% cost reduction in product cost and reduced and stabilized the parts inventory. I became the finance representative on the acquisition team. I also served as the accounting rep for the new product design and introduction team. The company was so successful, it was purchased by ITT Corp. in New York.

My next company was PTK Corporation in Los Osos, CA as Controller/CFO. PTK was a small company with very little cash and decreasing revenue. The problem was their lack of on time delivery and mismatched inventory. I was given the added responsibility of managing the manufacturing department. Our inventory problem was resolved with proper production scheduling, our on thime delivery went to 95% and our revenues and cash increased dramatically as we became a viable supplier. The company was purchased by Emerson Electric Company in St. Louis, MO.

My last company I worked for was Clear-Com Intercom Systems which was located in San Francisco as the Vice President, CFO. This company was in the worst financial condition of all the companies. The company was privately owned and the owner was not business oriented. I was able to gain the trust of the department heads to restructure the entire company. I recalculated the product cost that was used to set new pricing where cost was the issue. Sales gathered competitor's pricing to position our pricing at 15% below their prices. I established a new production scheduling process to increase on time delivery and reduce inventory. I also provided the names of lower cost part suppliers to further reduce our costs. In one year, we moved to our own building in Berkeley, CA. I wrote and negotiated the purchase contract for a high end complimentary product line that became an industry standard. This company was purchased by Vitec Group, LTD, a UK multi-national holding company.