Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2319: In The Panic

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

I was at a panel discussion a week or so ago where investors and CEOs were conversing on good Board governance.  One of the investors said that he thinks the best Board Directors are those who are ready and equipped to be “in the panic”.  He went on to describe a couple of high-profile board events that he had experienced that everyone in the room knew about and were cringing with the thought of being on the Board of Directors at that those moments.  Quite honestly, I don’t know that I could have been even-keeled, thoughtful and deliberate while they were occurring.  I totally understood why having calm in the panic is actually way more valuable than any of us might realize, factor into our own demeanor,  or make a requirement in the hiring of others.

In our work, we are all going to be in the panic zone at one time or another and it is in those moments that we should remember who it is we really work for!  When we do, the panic will be a lot less worse than it looks at the time.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 15:58 (New Living Translation)