Another Great Moment

Last month Hunter decided to try out for Cheer Captain. Not surprisingly, it’s a rigorous process involving recommendation letters as well as making your case to an independent panel. It’s also not a surprise that Hunter was voted 8th Grade Cheer Captain. She put a lot of effort into her submission and it’s very rewarding to see her focus on achieving and accomplishing a goal. We now have a basketball court in our backyard just so she can practice her new cheers. The girls just returned from Cheer Camp where they got first place in two of the three competition categories. She modeled her new uniform and is excited to lead the Harvest Park Cheer Squad next fall. Go Patriots!

Engineers Wanted – Brown or Green

How lucky I am; lucky to be able to listen and learn from global business and political leaders first hand. I’ve heard Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State, Donald Feinstein, Reagan’s Chief Economic Advisor and today Matt Simmons of Simmons & Company International, a leading investment banking firm focused on the energy industry.

Mr. Simmons is considered the 'high priest' of peak oil, is a member of the Council on Foreign Affairs and has written many books on the subject. His views are very provocative. For example, he suggested 500 – 700 might be the fair price for a barrel of oil. Now that’s provocative given oil is at $39 per barrel this week and down more than 70% in the last six months. Why? Because 90% of global oil rigs are 29 years old and will require trillions to repair and replace over the coming decades. Here is his presentation on surviving the post oil peak.

Speaking extemporaneously from notes, Mr. Simmons addressed the250 participants of the 2009 Oracle Oil & Gas Summit in Houston. His presentation covered many subjects from the ‘Rust’ issue and asset aging issue to the poor cost estimation of exploration to the aging workforce. With kids not far from college, the last point caught my interest.

I am very aware of the aging US workforce and I’m sure if I attended a healthcare conference or a manufacturing conference I would hear the same remarks – the high volume of baby boomers retiring will leave a huge talent vacuum and put America in a difficult economic situation. The Oil & Gas and Energy industries problem is more severe than others. Oil & Gas is the largest single industry on the planet and ²/з of their workforce is planning to retire in the next 5 years. Their geophysicists and thermal engineers average age is 59. American universities are not producing nearly the replacement power of the older generation.

Every industry goes through peaks and valleys on talent. In the 1980’s there was a strong demand for more accountants. In the 90’s we were paying web developers $150,000 to write HTML code. The 2000’s were all about financial engineering and Wall Street was enticing all the best and the brightest from American universities. Each generation has its unique talent needs and some important US industries are getting left behind. Unfortunately, countries like China and India have a very different demographic makeup and they are prepared to fill this global shortage.

What kind of engineers does America need? Engineers to invent clean energy, engineers to figure out more efficient ways to produce oil, engineers to reduce carbon emissions. You name it, we need more engineers. I can’t believe I’m saying that. I predict pocket protectors will be in vogue in 2020. What is a major twist on the needs of engineers for the future is they need to deeply understand their scientific field and understand business/finance. Mr. Simmons iterated this point many times.

When posed the question about alternative energy, Mr. Simmons spoke eloquently about how little green energy contributes to the increasing global demand for energy. This wasn’t new information but here’s what he said. “Globally, oil usage is 85 million barrels per day. At best, clean tech energy sources can (in the future) produce the equivalent of 7,000 barrels per day. That's less that 1/10 of 1%. This would include wind, geothermal, ethanol and nuclear combined.” Personally he believes offshore wind generation has great potential and this is why he sponsored a project off the coast of Maine to explore.

Mr. Simmons perspective on what to do was commonsense. He believes energy conservation is critical to sustaining this global crisis. He believes we need to travel less and consume goods made closer to home. He believes the 230 million US passenger fleet will not be replaced over night and likely not in the next 30-50 years. On the future of battery technology he flippantly said the best we can do is double the lifespan of laptop batteries. Funny but expected from an Oil man.

With kids less than 10 years from entering the workforce, his message really struck home. My hope for Parker and Hunter is that they learn about the different facets of science and that one field or another sparks their interest. I’m not convinced high school ‘guidance counselors’ have a clue about how to channel interests into careers. We haven’t begun this process with Parker yet and I hope I’m wrong on this topic.

In the coming years ahead, the most we can do at this stage of their lives is to expose them to many different professions (particularly those in strong demand) and let fate take its course. Fortunately I’ve developed great professional and personal relationships with leaders in many industries and they’re a phone call away from visiting their shop and discussing their profession. Many would be delighted to talk to young people about their work.

Now more than ever before, high school students need to think more about their interests and careers as the global market for talent is extremely competitive and there are serious imbalances among professions and industries.

On Location with Hunter in Rome

Before it was politically correct, I’ve been taking my kids to work. Yes even before they created the official ‘bring your kids to work’ day. Parker once sat through an all-day marketing meeting when he was 14 months old. I forgot to change his diapers so at lunch I had to duck into the local shopping mall and buy him all new clothes. My colleagues from Pilot Software were impressed that I brought Parker a change of clothes. Hah.

Both Parker and Hunter have now seen first hand what dad does at work. Several years ago, I took Parker to London on an analyst tour, and this year, it was Hunter’s turn.

Our destination: Rome. Our pictures can be viewed here.

This business trip was focused on building customer loyalty and gathering the senior executives from our largest European customers to discuss how we can help them gain more value from the software they have already purchased from Oracle. We expected 50 and 17 attended. The global recession has cut back business travel significantly. The business meeting wasn’t great but the experience of exploring Rome with Hunter was phenomenal.

As Hunter was flying on a United Awards Ticket, we got to Rome the long way…through Washington DC. We arrived early Sunday morning and found our way to the hotel without any delay. We unpacked and went to the lobby to have breakfast in the hotel…European Breakfast that is. Capucine, a friend from Oracle France, and her boyfriend were about to begin exploring as we met them in the lobby. We decided to take a short breakfast with them and go together to the Vatican. We arrived at St. Peter’s square mid-day on Sunday.

The Cathedral was definitely a high point for Hunter. She was intrigued by all the statues of previous Pope’s. We decided to take the journey to the top of the dome and explore Rome from St. Peter’s cupola. From the lift, it was only 320 steps. My left knee remembers each and every one.

It was a partly cloudy morning in Rome with temps in the mid-50’s. We headed down to the main part of the Cathedral to find a large ceremony getting underway with 30+ important looking church officials processing into the center of the Church. We think they were all Cardinal’s but weren’t 100% certain. They looked important: lots of security and photographers.

The Vatican Museum was closed so we would have to do it another day. Together with Capucine and David, we walked back across the river past the Saint Angelo Castle to make our way over towards the Piazza Novena to have lunch. We found a great café on the square and ordered classic Roman Pizza as Hunter began to fade. I thought she was going to put her face right into the Italian pie. She made it through lunch…just barely. We headed back to the hotel so that Hunter could take a nap and I could begin preparations for our conference on Monday.

Day One, Part Two. Hunter joined the Oracle team for dinner on Sunday night which was located on the top of the Spanish Steps. In transit, we saw several street peddlers quickly pickup shop, sloop their wares over their shoulder and hustle up the Spanish Steps and vanish out of site. Rome police were obviously coming but nobody saw them. As expected, two hours later the peddlers had setup shop again on the Steps to hustle another tourist. Filmmakers occuppied the Spanish Steps that night and it was cool to see the action. Very entertaining.

Monday our business meeting started at 2pm and Hunter sat in the back while I moderated a discussion on risk management. The subject is obviously a hot topic now but unfortunately ½ of the customers spoke very little English. Five in fact only spoke Polish. My polish is minimal. Ted Bories, a close family friend was Polish and taught me: Na zdrowie. That means cheers. Oh well.

Hunter and I took a wonderful walk towards the Spanish Steps after our meeting on Monday evening. We found the shirtmaker, Dan of Roma and explored the shopping district a bit. Dinner was a classic four course Italian dinner with excellent mozzarella salad and of course tiramisu. Hunter was quickly becoming a connoisseur of tiramisu because I think she had it nearly everyday.

Tuesday our business meeting went until 2pm which gave Hunter time to work on homework. It is so awesome that she can do school work using online lessons that her teachers setup 6,000 miles away. Isn’t it great that she could explore another country and still keep up on schoolwork at the same time? The wonders of technology.

In the category of a strange coincidence, our neighbors from Pleasanton were in Rome the same week. Hunter and I joined Scott and Debbie Myers for a great dinner at a small café in the piazza by the Pantheon. We walked the streets and found a great gelato shop where we all indulged in some home made Italian ice cream. Late that evening we saw the Trevi Fountain. Magnificent. It was their 20th anniversary and they were headed to Florence tomorrow.

Wednesday was our first chance to explore and Hunter’s first choice was to check out the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. We had a great time walking through these ancient ruins. Being in the presence of these environments, it’s easy to visualize emperors hailing from Palatine Hill above the peasants. We saw doors on one building made of copper which were dated to 74 BC. Now that’s old, really old.

Walking up, down and around the forum, we were both exhausted. We covered many miles and countless flights of steps. More Motrin please. We had a great lunch near the Piazza Novena and headed over to the Mouth of Truth. The Mouth of Truth hangs in the lobby of the Santa Maria church built in 1632. A bit of history can be found

Pointe Shoes – A Rite of Passage

June brought the news that Hunter was promoted to Level Four at the San Francisco Ballet School. This is quite an accomplishment as Level Four is the year girls begin using Pointe shoes. We congratulated Hunter and carried on with our normal summer vacation plans in Camp Sherman. Returning to Pleasanton in August due to Parker’s wrestling camp gave us time to get things sorted out for another active year in the SF Ballet School program.

It’s a very demanding school expecting much from the young ladies in training. Hunter was definitely up for the challenge and couldn’t wait to get started. To progress at ballet requires concentration, dedication and a great support system.

Classes resumed and her new teacher informed them to get fitted for Pointe shoes as it would be a few weeks before they started exercises with them. On a rainy Sunday in September, I took Hunter into Berkeley to be fitted. Little did I know this was a huge milestone in a dancers’ career. I assumed we would try on two or three pairs, she would choose one and we would be driving back to Pleasanton in fifteen minutes. Our experience was far from that.

It started with the shopkeeper asking questions about her dance, which studio she started in, how long she had been dancing and what she likes most about ballet. She began studying Hunter’s feet trying to assess which brand and style would be ideal. Other prospective ballerinas started to flow into the shoe section with their mom’s. All noticed that Hunter was special as she was trying on Pointe shoes. When the mom’s learned that Hunter had been in the Nutcracker, they shared that with their up and coming cuties. The little ones held Hunter in the highest regard and were mesmerized with her as she went to the bar to assess the fit of the Pointe shoes.

Hunter was the talk of the store that day. I was proud of her accomplishments. Hunter is blessed with a gift to dance and I’ve always known that she will accomplish the goals she sets out but I didn’t expect that Pointe shoes represented a right of passage to becoming a young lady but clearly everyone in the dance studio did. I was one proud beaming dad.

Two hours later we had exhausted all the inventory of this little store and found an ideal pair of Pointe shoes for our ballerina. Hunter and the shopkeeper talked about how to keep them in proper form. We choose the ribbons and pads and were good to go. Choosing the right Pointe shoes are clearly important for the safety of their feet but this experience was so much more than trying on new dance shoes.