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 2297: Inclusion

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“Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.”

Corporate America has long talked about the importance of diversity and inclusion, but from the backlash from the myriad of sexual harassment charges popping up, it might finally be time that real actions get taken.  I’ve long encouraged those who are in decision making roles to start with turning inclusion from a nice to have to a “must have to succeed” emphasis.  You see, once you need an inclusion committed culture, then you find your way to diversity.  But, if you can’t even accept the differences in each other, when we look alike or come from similar backgrounds, etc. then how can we ever expect that our cultures will be welcoming to those who are diverse.  It was Abraham Lincoln who summed up inclusion the best: “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”

Has any King ever been more inclusive than Jesus?  He walked and dined with the poor, downtrodden and the sinners. He started from a place of inclusion and then challenged the rest of us to be the same.  But, we find it hard to be comfortable outside of our tight circle of friends and similar co-workers.  What would happen if we were the ones to start a cross-cut of our workplace socializing.  I know, it’s early, but since the department stores are already telling us that it is Christmas time, how about we start thinking now about how we could use the season that marks the birth of our Lord to be inclusive beyond our normal inclinations?  A new kind of office party?

Reference:  Matthew 9:10 (New Living Translation)