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 2406: Fear Not

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“They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.”

We have entered a new phase in the life cycle of technology.  I’m not sure what this era will be called but it will be profound.  Those technology titans who now lead the companies that have built the platforms upon which we depend for our entertainment, socialization and productivity have begun to question themselves and the products they have built.  No, it’s not the question of the viability of the products themselves, but as CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner, called out, “It’s the unintended consequences”.  Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has already testified to the privacy faults of their platform. The imagery that is being created is of pitchfork carrying users and advertisers at the gates.  What can this teach us?  None of our businesses are impervious to what will be bad news. But, how we respond to this bad news is how we will be remembered.  We have a moment in the tech world to decide how we will respond.  And, we each will have our moment too.  When?  That when, we cannot know.

Our bad news is not something to fear.  I am guilty like the rest of us that when things are going well, a fear can creep in that things can’t keep on such a good trajectory. And, when bad news shows up, I can feel fear that the bad will settle in and become the new normal.  But, this is not what we are taught.  That fear is not of God. That fear is our weaknesses being tested and it is right then, at the beginning of that fear feeling that we must turn our trust to God. That draft of fear can and will be replaced by the assuring winds of the Holy Spirit.

Reference: Psalm 112:7 (New Living Translation)