Sean Murphy (H2008)
CustomInk.com (3 years)
– VP of Marketing
– Online Retailer of customer designed apparel
– 300k+ customers – America’s Largest Custom Screen Printer
Capitol Advantage (3 Years)
– COO
– Software-as-a-Service for political activism, fundraising and lobbying
– 1500 customers ranging from trade associations, corps, non-profits, and lobbying organizations
Webridge now Click Commerce (3 Years)
– Director of Japanese Operations
– B2B Software Company
– Developed entry into Asian Market
Deloitte Consulting (3 Years)
– Participated in the formation of the first CRM consulting practice
– Provided strategic CRM services to innovative business units of Fortune 500 organizations
Education:
University of Texas at Austin 1995
Michael McCurdy (P2008)
Michael McCurdy currently serves as CRM Director at TheLadders.comlocated in New York City where he’s responsible for email marketingcommunications. Prior to working for TheLadders.com, McCurdy worked inDallas, Texas for Match.com as Director of CRM product marketing wherehe was responsible for all customer touch point communications for bothMatch.com and their newest brand Chemistry.com. Prior to Match.com,Michael worked for Sabre Holdings (parent company for Travelocity,Travel Network, Sabre Airline Solutions) holding a variety of positionsin strategic marketing, product marketing, product management andportfolio planning. Prior to Sabre, he worked at ADP, Volvo FinanceNorth America and TIG Insurance (formerly Transamerica). Michael earnedhis Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Universityof Dallas and completed his undergraduate work at Dallas BaptistUniversity where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration.
The Portable Landmark Herodotus?
I would be interested in an audio recording of Herodotus to help me “read” while I am driving to and from work!
Andre 🙂
Sampath Gomatam
Sampath Gomatam has recently joined Starcite as SVP of Product Management. In this role, he will have overall responsibility for product management for all of Starcite’s products and will report into the COO of Starcite.
Prior to Starcite, he was the General Manager of the Contract and Service Management (CSM) and Master Data Management business units for Click Commerce, the software division of ITW. Sampath had complete P&L responsibility for these solutions for Click Commerce and managed the overall strategy, sales, product management and marketing, engineering, professional services and support groups for these solutions. In that role, he reported directly to the President of Click Commerce.
Sampath has 17 years experience in several senior management roles, across industries and with a variety of business models. In the 1990s, as a project leader and consultant, he successfully managed and implemented technology solutions in industries such as Biotechnology Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Engineering Construction and High-Tech. Sampath worked for SAP America deploying supply chain and production planning solutions at large High-Tech manufacturing companies and also has extensive experience in manufacturing execution systems and process automation systems while at leading companies such as Genentech, Degussa and Fluor Daniel.
In 2000, he left SAP to join Commerce One where his leadership and ability to lead difficult projects to successful outcomes led to multiple roles of increasing responsibility in services, business development and operations teams.
In 2003, he was recruited by Elance to join and then build out the Professional Services practice. After Click Commerce’s acquisition of Elance, Sampath was promoted to lead the combined Elance, Requisite and bTrade businesses in Nov 2006.
Sampath is an exceptional leader with experience managing and motivating technical and non-technical teams. His expertise is in building and managing high velocity technology organizations from start up to profitability.
He holds a Master of Business Administration, from Santa Clara University, and a Bachelor of Technology degree, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India.
Re: Useful suggestions, distilled from “How to Read a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
Below are reading guidelines culled from the classic “How to Read a Book by” Mortimer Adler. This book was recommended to us by Phil Terry when we began our journey with Herodotus. Since I commute four hours a day, it has been convenient for me to read hardcover Herodotus while seated on Metro North and soft cover Adler while hanging on the Lexington Avenue subway. What I share with you below is highly reductive. I truly encourage all of you to wade into the Adler, using the very guidelines he suggests. (disclosure note: This was proofed only by me and I am very bad at proofing my stuff, so all typographical errors are my responsibility.)
Chapter 4 – Inspectional Reading I: Systematic Skimming/Pre-Reading
1. Look at the title page and the preface if the book has one. Read quickly.
2. Study the table of contents.
3. If the book has a dust jacket, read the publisher’s blurb.
4. Look at the chapters that seem to be pivotal to the book’s argument.
5. Turn the pages, dipping in here and there, never more than two pages at a time. I find it useful to read the first and last paragraph of each chapter, or the sections of each chapter, and review the exhibits, photographs, charts, and in our case maps.
Chapter 4 – Inspectional Reading II: Read through the work quickly, skimming
1. “In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things that you do not understand right away. ” (1)
2. “ . . .do not try to understand every work or page of a difficult book the first time through. This is the most important rule of all; it is the essence of inspectional reading. Do not be afraid to be, or seem to be superficial. Race through even the hardest book. You will then be prepared to read it well the second time.” (2)
Chapter 5 – How to be a Demanding Reader
Answer the following questions for yourself.
1. “What is the book about as a whole?”
2. “What is being said in detail and how”?
3. “Is the book true, in whole or part?”
4. “What of it?” What is the significance?
Chapter 5 – Notetaking: How to Make a Book Your Own – Marking
Footnotes
1) In the case of “The Landmark Herodotus, I do this chapter by chapter.
2) I have found this hard to do with the Herodotus, as I invariably get happily distracted throughout my attempt to skim each chapter first. Also, I am concerned about getting all the reading done for our calls. I think the point is to adapt Adler’s guidelines to the book at hand and one’s circumstances at the time.
Seeking Wisdom – April 2008 – audio recording
Here’s the audio recording for the third and final Seeking Wisdom call. Listen online or download the mp3 file and listen to it as a podcast on your ipod.
The Landmark Herodotus Reviewed in the 5/15 NYRB
Fellow Readers,
Our text is reviewed in the current issue of the New York Review of Books, by Peter Green, a classicist.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21370
I found his comments about Herodotus’ unprecedented attention to culture and anthropology spot on, yet not revelatory. We know this from reading the first three books.
However, when he discussed the Strassler “Landmark” edition specifically, Green struck me as elitist and condescending, including these observations:
1. Too many maps;
2. Waste of margin space with the summary notes;
3. Too heavy to carry around.
I completely disagree. I am very interested to hear what you all think.
Best,
Cathy
A Brush With Herodotus
Team,
I have to share this story with you. I was on a business trip this weekend that had me driving on the dark back roads in Maryland to get from Frederick to Dulles airport at 5am. The rental car I was driving had satellite radio so it had a lot of channels that I didn’t have time to fully explore. I just randomly tried a channel (#164) and it was the “Old Time Radio” channel. They started playing a spooky episode from Suspense Theater that was originally aired June 1, 1944. Vincent Price was one of the characters. The leading lady in the story started to describe a friend of her to Vincent Price and she described the gentleman that her friend was attracted to. Near the end of the description she said, “…and he’s as rich as Croesus.” She pronounced the name the same we did on our last call so I was wondering if this could be the same Croesus that Herodotus writes about. After arriving at the airport I quickly googled this phrase on my Blackberry and sure enough, it was once a common phrase used by the general population and it referred to the writings of Herodotus. It must have been a common phrase if it was being used on national radio in 1944. I guess the classics have faded a bit from our minds today. I wonder if people referred to the classics more frequently in the near past.
Jim
Herodotus in the New Yorker
This week’s issue of The New Yorker has a review of Herodotus:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/04/28/080428crbo_books_mendelsohn
Very interesting, but be warned – there are spoilers!
-Dan
Dan Blank
Fun photo: Phil in chainmail
Folks,
Hope you are doing well – look forward to our calls next week. I had a chance to visit the offices of “ThinkGeek” last week. They are a very cool retailer selling all kinds of geek-focused products. Check them out at: www.thinkgeek.com
They put me in some chainmail, a helmut and gave me a sword and took some photos (with my long-sleeve shirt, watch and suit pants on!).
The helmet I wore was real metal and very heavy – and the chainmail was also real metal and hard to get on and off. But once it was on, it was very cool. I was ready to join the Spartans at Thermopylae 😉 (note: I know this is not Spartan-specific gear)
Phil
05. May 2008 by Arrian
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