Rob Quartel:  

Hi all, I just realized my profile is about 8 years out of date! So… To sum up the last 50 years, I guess I’d say that I’m a classic entrepreneur with a propensity for risk, and still doing it! Unlike many, however, I’ve started or been at the startup of organizations and ventures in not just the private but the public and not-for-profit sectors too -- four private sector and three government startups, half a dozen political campaigns (as a senior policy guy in three Presidential campaigns and three for myself), and another half dozen not-for-profit organizations. Over the years I've been involved in Homeland security, maritime policy, food and product safety and logistics, government policy making, politics, national transportation policy, entrepreneurship and finance -- and have had a fantastic time along the way, working for myself pretty much since I was 27. While I still have a strong anchor in history and tradition, I love the "new," whether in technology, people, organizations, whatever -- and my best friends these days are mostly 35 years old, plus or minus ten years, often running startups. I’ve recently brought in a CEO to run the decision support technology company I founded almost 20 years ago, following on the spin-out of a successful technology company in the Middle East that optimizes truck operations in and around ports. I spend a fair amount of my time these days working with young entrepreneurs from various communities (including Yale, Rice, and in the DC-Va region); have begun a book venture; am potentially starting an investment fund under the new tax bill; and am doing too many other things to objectively do well, LOL. On the home front, I’m still happily married after 37 years. My wife has retired for the second time after a very successful career at McKinsey, Marriott, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel –and today does paying and non-paying...Expand for more