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 3K137: What’s In A Name?

“God replied to Moses, “I am who i am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.”

After 30 years, my work alma mater EA is dropping the name FIFA from its’ legendary soccer videogame.  The name FIFA and EA have become synonymous to multiple generations of gamers, the same as Madden means to American football videogamers. The decision by EA all came down to money and exclusivity.  From what I know, the pain will be more for FIFA than EA, but for millions of consumers who have collected copy after copy each year and created a library of FIFA games, they will be the ones who will hurt the most. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.  A name is just a name, but some names become household and when they change there is a price to be paid.

God gave Himself a name so that Moses could represent Him. It had to be an odd name for Moses to repeat to others.  But, God knew better.  He gave Himself a name that no others could copy. “I am” can only be One.  When drift and feel like we can’t feel God’s presence, or that we feel like we are out of touch with Him, we can come back to Him with His name on our lips;  “I am” and Jesus, the two most powerful names of all.

Reference: Exodus 3:14 (New Living Translation)