Michael Francisco:
CLASS OF 1961
Palm Springs High SchoolClass of 1961
Palm springs, CA
Michael's Story
Mike Francisco Information ¿ Wife, Janis Lee; Children ¿ Jason Lewis (43) and Laura Anne (40) ¿ 3 granddaughters Family My wife (Janis Lee) and I met at UCLA and were married in 1965. We are still happily married and will celebrate 45 years in June!! We have a son (plus granddaughter) in Atlanta and a daughter (plus two granddaughters) in Nashville. Our son is the Chairman of the Visual Arts Department at Emory University having earned degrees at Columbia, Wisconsin and Stanford. His wife is the Chairwoman of the Arts Department at Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. Our daughter has earned two college degrees and is now attending Law School in Alabama. Her husband is an Episcopal Minister in Nashville. My sister, Barbara Elaine, attended PSHS as a freshman in 1961 and graduated from University High in Los Angeles. She graduated from Stevens College, married a physician and lives in Tampa. She has 4 grown daughters, who are scattered in the Northeast with one living now in Denver. All of them have graduated from first-rate universities and are working as professionals (doctor, lawyer, business owner and consultant). Business After I graduated from PSHS, my formal education path took me to UCLA where I earned a B.S. in economics (1965) followed by an MBA (1966) with a concentration in accounting and information systems. I also received my CPA certificate and joined Price Waterhouse & Co. in the summer of 1967. I stayed with PW for 27 years and was admitted to its partnership in 1979. I was assigned to offices in Los Angeles (including Beverly Hills and Century City), New York (Manhattan), and San Francisco and had international responsibilities in London and Paris. My clients were primarily very large billion dollar multinational companies such as Carnation, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop- Grumman, General Dynamics, Siemens, Southern Pacific Railroad, Chevron and Mitsubishi. In 1989, I earned another postgraduate degree in World Class Manufacturing from Duke University. Cancer After retiring from PW at age 48, I founded three companies including a company based in Mumbai, India which makes world class clean drinking water equipment. I have had to curtail my active management as Chairman and CEO of the water enterprises as the result of being diagnosed with Non Hodgkin¿s Lymphoma in January 2008. It hit me extremely hard (Stage 4 ¿ Advanced); I was expected to die after being released from the hospital. (The ...Expand for more
hospital recommended hospice care to my wife.) Notwithstanding that advice and expectation of death, I am currently cancer free thanks to God, my wife¿s fantastic care and a wonderful oncologist. Currently, I am considerably weakened by nerve pain emanating from former malignant neck tumors. However, I formed a new boutique investment banking and consulting firm in October 2009 that is pursuing opportunities in Europe, California, China and Taiwan. Travel Since graduation from high school, I have probably managed 4 million air miles on my body. I have travelled throughout the USA, Europe, South America, Asia and Southeast Asia. I have travelled (approximately 50 times) to Singapore, China, Taiwan and India. Again, (more than 100 times) to Europe and the U.K. including Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium) and London. I have had more flights on the Concorde than I can remember and had the joy of taking my wife on the Concorde before it was grounded. Several times our children (when they were younger) joined us on European ¿vacations¿. We lived in Greenwich, Ct. for four years and also took the opportunity to really explore the Northeast in general and the Tri-State Area specifically. Although our daughter attended Cal, she wound up graduating from Barnard College in New York and our son followed a similar multi college path of starting and graduating from Columbia in New York, but attended college in London and graduated with two Masters degrees from University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee and Southern India) and Stanford (Palo Alto with 1 year in Paris on a scholarship). This year our son received a scholarship to Poland and he will take wife and daughter with him for part of the 3 months. The bottom line is, all of the Franciscos have slept in airline seats. In fact, I put an airline seat (coach) in our bedroom because we are more comfortable in it than a regular bed (just kidding). We love Kauai (1 condo), London, Manhattan, live musical theater, museums of almost any variety, great food (my wife is a gourmet cook), beaches everywhere, bicycles (one of my clients was the world¿s largest manufacturer of bicycles near Beijing), and gardens. I love bop jazz (1957 to 1969) and consumer electronics and have been an ¿early adopter¿ since the early 1980¿s. Because of my medical condition, I am only able to walk short distances but my near term objective is to resume a more active life-style.
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