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 1955: Moments To Stand Up

“You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.”

Regardless of political positions, it is hard to ignore the swift changes that occurred in South Carolina this past month regarding the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the statehouse grounds. In the midst of all of the tragedy and conflict, what remains the most powerful message was the forgiveness and love expressed by the families of victims of the AME shootings.  Consider that there wasn’t any time that the families would have ever have prepared or even ever talked about “How would we respond to a murderer?”  What they did was, in the moment, stepped up and let their beliefs and faith drive and direct their words and actions.  And the result was beyond powerful, it was indelible.  When we are faced with so much less trouble, how is it that our company, our employees, and ourselves respond?  Do we end up huddling in a conference room and debating for hours and days until a message is crafted that is so watered down that we don’t even recognize ourselves?  There are times when we are needed to stand up and let what we truly believe be the sole driver of what we do and say.

And, do we need to say any more to ourselves either?  We just need to stay ready so that when our moments show up, that we are ready to stand up and share what we believe.

Reference: Psalm 139:2 (New Living Translation)