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 480: The Reason For Accounting

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Accounting departments are important and have become even more so in the last 10 years since the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act where greater transparency was regulated. But, have you ever thought about why we need accounting and accounting firms? As I was reading in the book of Kings, I saw a reason. We need accounting as it stems from the same reasons we need referees, umpires, officials and policemen; to keep us from breaking the rules and the laws. When we were kids on the sandlot playing basketball or football we didn’t have referees. We called our own fouls and when there was a dispute it got worked out. When higher levels of competition or money gets involved then all of a sudden, we need other people to account for how we play the game. The same could be said for work. There are no accountants on hand at the lemonade stand or on the paper route, but somewhere along the way, we need them to be sure that the books balance and the cash is routed in the right direction. We need the accounting to keep us safe from ourselves. In 2 Kings 12:15 we read; “No accounting was required from the construction supervisors, because they were honest and faithful workers.” So, it may be that we are our own worst trouble makers when we decide to cut a corner, not tell the truth, or break a rule. The accountants are watching and beyond that we are being “accounted” for in a much bigger way. Let us be the examples of why the accountants don’t ever need to be called onto our jobs.

Reference: 2 Kings 12:15 (New Living Testament)