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 1961: Free Offerings

“So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift….”

I just finished reading Carey Perloff’s book, “A Beautiful Chaos – My Life in the Theater”.  On more than one occasion she references, Emma Rice, the Artistic Director of the Kneehigh Theater from Cornwall, England. Ms. Rice (who I have met more than once) is a creative genius who develops a type of theater that is engaging beyond other productions I have experienced.  As part of her play development philosophy she asks of herself and every actor, director, etc, “What do we have that is free?”  It’s a great question and one that we should all be asking about our products and services.  We have much to offer that is free.  For some it is the goodwill of the brand.  For others, it is an innate product design sense, or communication ability, or an owner/founder who just exudes confidence and charisma.  We all have something we can offer that is already free to us that if we just bring it forward, we can capture the attention beyond our competitors.

What is more free than what Christ offers for us?  Sure, there is a cost that we pay to give up of ourselves to follow Him, but when we consider what we receive in return for the freedom that comes from a life of living for Him, then we can understand what is truly the definition of free.

Reference: Romans 4:16 (New Living Translation)