Douglas Howe:  

Life I attended Defiance College in Defiance, OH and graduated with a BA in Languages in 1969. One week later I reported to Pensacola, FL to begin Aviation Officer Candidate School with the U.S. Navy. I met Carla (at a match-making dinner) during my fleet training in the A-7 Corsair in Lemoore, CA and we were married in December, 1971. In April, 1972 I deployed aboard USS Midway (CVA-41) as part of Carrier Air Wing 5. We spent 10 months on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf where I accumulated 185 combat missions and over 300 carrier landings. All told I spent 7.5 years in the Navy. I left the service to attend Wharton Grad and received an MBA in Marketing in 1978. Since then I have held a number of marketing management and general management positions, the highlight of which was leading the financial turnaround of Vivitar Corporation, $125 million consumer electronics firm, in 1998. Most of my career has been involved with commercializing technologies in large companies (GE) down to pre-revenue start-ups, two of which went bust when the “bubble” burst in 2001. I have experienced many changes in my career, half voluntary, and half involuntary. My latest assignmen...Expand for more