Clayton Graham:
CLASS OF 1960
Maine East High SchoolClass of 1960
Park ridge, IL
Clayton's Story
The Basics
Well it¿s been quite a ride. After Maine I went on to Purdue where I spent too much time on the golf course and not quite enough studying. Got married to college girl friend (Peggy DeWenter) a year after graduating from Purdue.
Worked in the family business for a couple of years and went to night school at Roosevelt University to get my grades up. Left the business to pursue academics on a full time basis now attending Northwestern¿s Kellogg Graduate School of management. Ironically I graduated on the same day from both institutions in 1968 with MA and MBA. Continued my education at in the PhD program at Northwestern where I was awarded a NASA scholarship (mathematical modeling on super computers).
Career 1.0
I joined the Management consulting firm of A.T. Kearney in the fall of 1969. My wife could now stop teaching (in Park Ridge¿s Franklin school) to bear our first daughter (Candace.) At Kearney I worked for the world¿s greatest boss (Don Weston) where I was ¿given enough rope to hang myself¿ and frequently did. We moved to Barrington.
The family business became available for sale. I bought the company but continued to work part time for Kearney for another ten year. At the same time we had our second daughter (Ashley.)
Career 2.0
Now I¿m my own boss and running a business (Graham Plating on the west side of Chicago.) Entering the business virtually all the employees were skeptical at best (as was I.) Getting to know the customers and employee was my first priority before making significant improvements. Then it ¿hit the fan¿, introduced: marketing / sales program, computers, statistical process control, service performance compensation, etc. The company prospered and I became more involved with the metal finishing industry¿s trade organizations (Chicago Metal Finishing Institute-President and National Association of Metal Finishers-Director.) The industry faced significant environmental regulation and I became...Expand for more
highly involved in the process. As a result I developed testimony for Congress and served as an advisor to the White House. Even though I was running my business I continued consulting to a wide variety of manufacturing and financial firms. I¿ve published and made presentations extensively in the areas of: analytics, profitability, control systems, sports modeling and gaming.
Our children were highly involved in swimming (and I who can¿t stay afloat in a bath tub.) Swim meets on the weekends dominated our free time while our kids were in grammar & high school and college. Swim meets: two days, a dozen events your kid swims for ten minutes ¿ and you hope it¿s less. Both were highly ranked in high school and went on to Purdue where they were on the swim team. I was active in the Barrington Swim Club and was instrumental to the introduction of computer timing, reporting, etc. to Illinois swimming.
Time marches on and I continued my consulting practice. The opportunity came when I had a chance to sell my business and did so. I was now active in evaluating and running companies for major venture capital professionals. I¿ve been featured in Forbes and Business Week.
Career 3.0
A place to ¿hang my hat¿ became a priority. I¿m now an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University (joint appointment to Departments of Management and Economics.) Applying mathematics and statistics to almost anything has resulted in me doing consulting projects for: schools boards, gaming industry and professional sports teams.
Recently I was contacted by the Cubs and the Seattle Mariners to develop optimizing models for player selection and batting order. I¿m currently working on a prototype project for the Mariners and have been invited to spring training by the Cubs.
The ¿off season¿ is more than hectic ¿ building and validating my baseball models, school district consulting, teaching, mathematical & statistical presentations and writing a book on graphic analytics.
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