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March 1994 – July 1996
- After leaving the security of IBM and risking everything to build a startup company (which failed), I was looking for a little stability. My friend from high-school, Steve PonTell was in charge of the west coast office of an economic development think-tank. I joined Lori Wild and later Mark Dowling at 3281 E Guasti Rd Suite #325, Ontario, California.
- I became the Executive Director of the Institute for TeleWork. The Institute was responsible for research projects in telecommuting, future workplace technologies, vertical applications for the Internet, geographical information systems, and distance learning. I led a project, called WorkSmart, to understand the implications of the workplace of the future and to develop products to assist organizations and communities to meet these challenges. I also managed the oldest telecommuting center in the continental U.S., where Los Angeles area employers tested telecommuting productivity, costs and benefits. Participating employers include GTE (which later became Verizon), Lucky Stores, Southern California Edison and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Remember, this was 20 years before Zoom and the practice of “Work From Home” (WFH).
- Steve always was a big dreamer, and he wanted to have more control and opportunity. So all four of us left CNW and created a new think-tank of our own.
