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See www.matmetz.com/aboutme.htm where you'll see this same bio information. On that page, many of the references below have links to additional information.
I've lived in the Phoenix Metropolitan area all my life (well, not YET!). Actually, that's not true. I was born here, but from the age of a few months until I was four, my family lived in LA before returning to Phoenix. Then for a year around 1960-61, we lived in Stamford, Connecticut. But other than that....
I attended Squaw Peak Grade School (now Biltmore Preparatory Academy), and then Camelback High School. I graduated from high school a semester early so I could work and earn a bit of money so my best friend and I could travel across the country for six weeks in the summer of '72.
My freshman year I attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. (It turns out I was there at the same time Steve Jobs was. He made billions of dollars, but I ended up married to my wonderful wife. Nyah, nyah!) I started college as a physics major, but found I needed more math to support the science. Plus, like most of the other students at Reed, I had no social skills. I was pretty unhappy that first year. So for the following three years of my undergraduate, I attended Arizona State University, where my major was Theoretical Mathematics with a minor in Philosophy.
When I graduated with my BS in Math, I was admitted to the Masters program (again, in Math) and was granted a teaching assistantship. It was my intention to stay in academia and eventually get a doctorate and teach. But that summer between graduating with my BS and entering the Masters program, while working for a locally owned camera retailer, I realized I liked earning money, so I let ASU know I would not be returning - at least not soon.
Three years later, still working in retail, I decided I liked sales and marketing. This was about the time of the Baby Bell break-ups and when I tried to get hired with the then newly-formed Mountain Bell, and other companies, I found I was being edged out by people with MBAs. So I decided to return to ASU to get one for myself. I was lucky that my parents funded my masters program (as they did my bachelor's) and I was able to work on the MBA full-time and completed the program in about 18 months.
But when I had my MBA, I didn't care for most of the positions I applied for. I took a job with an insurance company in which I was supposed to be marketing health insurance to small companies. But I ended up selling life insurance to friends and family. Bummer!
Fortunately, a few months later, there were some guys at what was then Sperry Aerospace who had technical undergraduates and MBAs, and they wanted someone to start doing m.r.p. They asked their recruiter to find someone like themselves - someone with a technical undergraduate and an MBA. The recruiter used a book of standardized resumes published by ASU's MBA program, and I got an unsolicited call to interview. A few weeks later, in February of 1981, I started with Sperry.
At Sperry, (where I met the wonderful woman I would marry three years later) I moved up in the organization, and found myself in planning supervision. I had discovered in myself a great interest in the use of computers and business software to assist business analysis, and eventually moved into a project management leadership position helping to install a new purchasing system. This was about the time Sperry merged with Burroughs to form Unisys, and they sold off our aerospace business to Minneapolis-based Honeywell.
But in 1988 I got a great chance to be a consultant with Deloitte, Haskins, and Sells, which quickly merged with Touche-Ross to become Deloitte and Touche. Deloitte was one of the then "Big Eight" CPA firms which also provided consulting services to its customers. For the nearly two years I worked for Deloitte, I got to do operations and materials consulting for companies as large as 50,000 employees and as small as 30. It was a great way to get a lot of diversified experience in a short time.
In 1990, I was hired back to Honeywell by a man I admired a great deal. He asked me to come back to manage the materials and operations portion of a tiny start-up operation designing and building what were in essence militarized WORM-CD devices for AV-8 and F-18 aircraft.
When that start-up ended, I stayed with Honeywell until 2005. Among the many things I did in those last 13 years were: managing MRP/ERP system selection and design; assisting in operations management; procurement management; managing quality systems; working the merger/acquisition of Honeywell by Allied/Signal; and implementing Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing. I became a certified Lean Expert. Throughout my career, I was recognized as a person who could design or develop tools which saved lots of people lots of effort, enabling them to be more effective and efficient. As a matter of fact, I was affectionately given the nickname "Jimmy Neutron" (as well as several less flattering epithets!).
I was growing tired, however, of the "corporate America" environment, and found myself complaining about my circumstances. Fortunately, I had options, because there were several factors on my side:
My parents had provided me with great education and good values. These allowed me to make a pretty good income for most of my working life.
My wife contributed fiscal discipline and great advice in business and personal life - in addition to working and earning her salary, as well. This allowed us to save lots of that "pretty good income" instead of me spending it all.
We discovered a great financial advisor. Besides being a great friend, Rich gave us sound financial advice that allowed us to parlay those savings into a reasonable investment portfolio.
These three factors, along with the encouragement of my loving wife, allowed me to retire in 2006 at the age of 52-1/2.
Now I've got time to pursue my dreams. Things that have kept me busy since retirement include:
Teaching computer classes to adult students at Scottsdale Community College
Traveling to places near and far
Serving on the board of directors for Friends of Public Radio Arizona
Being a Commissioner on the Scottsdale Pride Commission
Serving as president and board member of my homeowners' association
Giving back to my city by serving on City of Scottsdale's Board of Adjustment
Designing and maintaining a few web sites (Arizona BMW Z Series Club - FancifulFlights2u - www.SamuelMetz.com - www.RobertDeanCollection.com)
Doing a bit of digital video editing (mostly vacation videos - I'm able to take four or five hours of boring vacation video and edit to just 60 minutes of boring vacation video!)
Helping friends and family deal with the challenges of the digital age.
