George Dedes:  

Hi, and thanks for stopping by! Well geez, where to begin on a 30-year story... I suppose the beginning would be a good place to start! After high school, I went to college at USC where I pursued a BS degree in Aerospace Engineering and a BA in International Relations simultaneously... two very unrelated things. But life has a way of throwing us some unexpected twists and turns sometimes. Just before my last year of school, I took what was supposed to be only a full-time "summer job" with United Airlines' frequent flier program, Mileage Plus, doing customer service work. Well, that job ended up lasting about 5 years, and in a nutshell, I have been in the field of "direct/database marketing, loyalty/retention marketing" ever since. Most recently, I worked for Hewlett-Packard (computer, printer manufacturer) for about 8 years, but like many folks in this economy these days, I was laid off from HP last year and am still looking for my next "gig." While I'm leaving all options on the table for now, I'd really like to get out of the corporate rat race and hopefully start my own business... if I could only just figure out "what I want to do when I grow up!" As for where I've lived, I've had a couple of great opportunities in the last 20 years. My first 2 years in college, I shuttled back and forth between living in L.A. during school and back with my parents in the summers at their house in Garden Grove they've been in since it was built in 1978. By the 3rd year, I was tired of the back-n-forth and became a long-term resident of L.A. for 6 years. I then moved to Long Beach for another 6 years to be the on-site manager of an 8-unit apartment building that my family invested in there (in addition to my full-time day job.) In 1994, while working for Disney in Burbank, I decided it was time to buy my first house and move closer to work, so I bought a townhouse in Glendale where I lived for the next 10 years. In 1999, while working for a direct marketing agency in L.A., I was given an opportunity to go to London for 3-5 months to train some new staff in the agency's office there. I LOVED living in London, and got quite spoiled living in a couple of the best areas... Holland Park and Kensington. I wouldn't mind living in London again some day, actually. In 2004, having then been at HP for 4 years, I was given an opportunity to go on a "long-term temporary" assignment at HP's site in Barcelona, Spain. It was supposed to last 3 years, so the company moved me lock, stock and barrel to a great apartment right in the middle of Barcelona,...Expand for more