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 Dr. James A. Ionson appointed CEO of Plasmion Corporation HOBOKEN, NJ - Working with a company board on a search assignment for a CEO is the kind of project we are most interested in accepting and completing at this time. Based upon the solid success of this assignment we have high hopes that we will be asked to do many more CEO searches for newly emerging and established companies in the future. We could not be more proud of the outcome of the CEO search for Plasmion in that it was completed very quickly--under 40 days--with the hire of a truly "world-class" candidate. It might help to have a little background on Plasmion. The company is about 8 years old and is engaged in developing and commercializing unique--patented--atmospheric pressure plasma technologies that will help open up a variety of breath-taking, truly "disruptive," industrial and consumer applications. As defined by the folks at Space.com "Plasma is the fourth state of matter prevalent in the interstellar medium and in stars." relevant article An example of just one of Plasmion's cutting edge applications can be found in "flat panel displays"--like a TV screen--but much more clear and sharp, less costly and ultimately revolutionary in its effect. Plasmion management is actively exploring the licensing of its inventions as the company has not yet entered into any such licenses. To learn about the company, please visit : www.plasmion.com Dr. Ionson comes to his new role with excellent experience and credentials. He is first of all a highly experienced and accomplished scientist in his own right. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland and went on to the role of chief scientist for new technology applications for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI "Star Wars"). Many historians now attribute the build up in defense spending during the Reagan Administration as a key reason for the winning of the "Cold War." SDI was an integral part of that strategy. While Dr. Ionson was in his role at SDI he reported to General James A. Abrahamson and also worked frequently with then Secretary of Defense Caspar S. Weinberger. After leaving government service, Dr. Ionson went on to a series of increasingly more significant roles in private and large public companies where he developed and honed the business leadership skills that make him so attractive to the Plasmion Board. As CEO of Plasmion, Dr. Ionson's primary goals will be to generate relationships with licensees of their proprietary technology as well as to guide the operations of the company. Dr Ionson will be working closely with Dr. Stephen Kim a founder of Plasmion who has moved into the Chief Technology Officer role where he can concentrate on working to take their patented cold plasma technology applications to new heights. Among many other important people, Dr. Ionson will also be regularly interacting with Dr. Erich Kunhardt, Dean, Arthur Imperatore School of Applied Sciences & Liberal Arts at STEVENS INSTITUTE of TECHNOLOGY. Dr. Kunhardt is one of the principal inventors of the cold plasma applications being commercialized by Plasmion Corporation. We extend Dr. Ionson our heartiest congratulations on his appointment as CEO and wish him and his colleagues the very best in all their future efforts. |
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 KDK Musings Recovery on the way - a summer perenial bloom MORRISTOWN, NJ It's Summertime. The daylight lasts longer and the mornings are a little brighter and fresher. Our garden full of perennial herbs and flowers has never looked more beautiful. Here in Northern New Jersey whitetail deer are always a challenge since they have essentially moved into the suburbs and found the pickings much to their taste. Little by little we have sought to counter their assault by introducing plantings that our deer friends take much less interest in nibbling on. This year's list of new plantings includes: Larkspur, Digitalis, Black-eyed Susan, Astilbe, Bleeding Heart, Russian Sage, Rosemary and English Sage. The results are rewarding since we actually get to enjoy our greenery and flowers now with little worry that we will find the tops of our flowers gone in the morning. We plan to investigate "Native Plantings" in a little more depth over the months ahead since putting up fences or spraying seems to be much less smarter (and effective) than simply planting the right stuff in the first place. Do you sense a simile coming? I will spare you, dear reader... At KULPER & COMPANY we are focusing on completing our current assignments and wondering what exciting and interesting new assignments lay ahead for us in the second half of 2002. Since early Spring we have noted a steady upturn in client activity, which is always welcome. When this is combined with a general attitude of greater flexibility among our candidates who now frequently display an eagerness to hear about new opportunities we conclude: "it's a good time to be in the retained search business." Our business model continues to evolve and strengthen. More and more, our focus is on accepting and completing senior level assignments where our quality oriented, tailored and highly ethical search process is appreciated and supported by our clients and candidates. There seems to be no question among our clients that our search process gets the results they are seeking. Client Satisfaction levels (as measured by "Client Feedback" forms that we ask our clients to complete at the end of each assignment) continue to run in the 4.7 range -- with 5.0 representing a perfect score. We get equally high marks of 4.85 from our Candidates on their Candidate Satisfaction forms. Thank you very much clients and candidates for your frank feedback. We look forward to continually improving service in the years ahead. In late May, during our annual ISO 9002 audit we were reminded by our auditor from SGS International Certification Services, Inc., that we are among a handful of professional services firms, nationally, that have been awarded ISO status. He asked if our status as an ISO registered search firm has helped with our marketing and sales effort. We replied unequivocally, "Yes, it has helped." --but we want to spread our story more widely. We particularly enjoy working with clients who value our quality oriented-- "handcrafted" -- approach to the search process --because based upon our satisfaction ratings it really does get the right results. The search process fosters an attitude of continual improvement where the quest for even "better" quality outcomes is simply the way we do things. Identifying a weakness in the search process is viewed as a "good thing" since the implemented remedy serves to permanently strengthen the entire search process as opposed to correcting it for just that one assignment. On average, we complete 10 search assignments each year. Our aim is to accept and complete significant search assignments. Could we take on a CEO assignment for a multinational corporation or the Presidency of a major Higher Education institution? Yes. and we would do a great job, too! The more important the assignment -- the bigger the job we are being asked to help fill -- the more powerful the impact of our search process. We recently completed a CEO search assignment for Plasmion Corporation in record time -- see Hired Candidate Article in the current issue of NEWS FROM "Dr. James A. Ionson appointed CEO of Plasmion Corporation". This outcome occurred because the Board of Directors, led by a very experienced Chairman, made it clear to us what they wanted in the hired candidate. We proceeded to follow our normal search process that called for the creation of a Position Specification that accurately represented the sought after experience, attributes and style of the desired CEO. Members of the Board participated in helping to make the Specification right on target by carefully reviewing it and offering key insights that sharpened the entire Board's understanding of just who they were seeking. When the members of the Board met Dr. Ionson they knew as well as we that they had a top candidate who they could hire, so that is just what they did -- after progressing through series of in-depth interviews coupled with a thorough re ference background report from KULPER & COMPANY. I firmly believe, based upon my experience and research, that the single most important factor in a company's success or failure is its management team. Reflect for a moment about the recent headlines involving Enron, Worldcom, ImClone, Tyco, Arthur Andersen and others that have been in the glare of the klieg lights testifying before Congressional Committees CEOs who take the right approach, are experienced, have a track record of success and, above all, direct their fellow team members to always be honest and do the right thing stand a much better chance of thriving in an economic expansion or weathering an economic storm. I would like to see a New York Times headline story about a half dozen CEOs who exemplify just this sort of leadership; there truly are legions of them out there. I hope to be able to write about some like this in future editions of NEWS FROMwho are our hired candidates. Do you enjoy reading predictions about the future? I like to share with readers of NEWS FROMour economic forecast---a masochistic tendency that goes back to my days at the STONIER GRADUATE SCHOOL of BANKING when I gladly sat in Dr. Edmond Seifried's class dealing with learning how to structure a reasonable economic forecast. Ed is so good at teaching people how to make a solid economic forecast that he makes it seem easy. Feel free to drop Ed an email if you would like him to address your company or group; he is a sensational speaker--seifried@lafayette.edu Bank CEOs need to understand how to make a reasonable interest rate forecast because a large part of what they must do in their job is dependent on the direction of interest rates for Asset (Loan/Investment) and Liability (Deposit) Management reasons. I was amazed at how accurate Ed's forecasts were, and still are; but he is a whiz and it's great to count him as a friend. So here is my economic forecast. It appears that GDP will come in at about 3.5% for 2002, which will keep the economy from overheating and the FED from raising short-term rates (too) soon. As a result, the stock market ought to take comfort from the moderation of the pace of recovery and bring back much needed confidence and balance. The "steady as she goes" recovery that we are currently experiencing ought to help propel corporate earnings (real, "honest to goodness" earnings) of Dow component companies. I hazard to guess where the Dow will be by year end but suffice to say that it ought to return to historic average gains in the 7-8% range once things return to normal. But, right now, might be a real buying opportunitysince I think the Dow could close in the 9,500 to 10,000 range by year-end. Take a look at the Treasury yield curve and you will see the nice "hockey stick" slope that historically foreshadows a solid economic rebound. Fed Chairman Greenspan is keeping the monetary policy throttle on "idle" as the effect of 11 interest rate reductions continue to work their way through the economy; it's doubtful that he will lower -- or raise -- interest rates any time soon. The Bear Market we are currently experiencing might be viewed as net positive (at this point) since it is bringing even great market segment dominant companies like GE, Harley Davidson, Cisco, and Proctor & Gamble down to much more affordable price levels as nervous investors shed even these blue chip issues. Has the pendulum swung too far to the negative? What do you think? Clearly, excesses of too much growth fueled by run away funding and overly optimistic forecasts take time to work out. Scandals, resulting from corporate leadership judgment errors make for great media copy, further driving (down) investor confidence and s entiment. We have seen plenty of that lately. The threat of more terror attacks will stay with us for the foreseeable future, unfortunately. Peace in the Middle East is a key factor to help reduce this threat to the future stability and prosperity of the entire world. Initiatives taken by the Bush Administration to encourage peace as well as to strengthen National defense have been helpful but we need the antagonists to want peace more than war. What is it going to ultimately take to achieve peace in that troubled region? Stay tuned, and while you are at, say a prayer for peace. Hoping that you and all the members of your family are thriving and prospering. Have an enjoyable Summer. Until then keep those emails and phone calls coming ---it's great to hear from all of you. Peace, Keith |
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 Technology Management Working Group May 3 Workshop at Stevens Institute It's great to be able to relate to our readers that our efforts in helping to build and develop a new community of Technology Management Industry and Academic Professionals has met with such wonderful success. KULPER & COMPANY played a key role in organizing, promoting and producing the May 3 Technology Management Workshop held at STEVENS INSTITUTE of TECHNOLOGY. The Workshop was attended by approximately 65 academic and industry leaders from the Technology Management field. The "overall" attendee rating of the Workshop was close to 9.0 on a scale of 1-10 ( 10= Highest Rating) which was very gratifying for all of us who worked hard on putting together the event. The purpose of the workshop as conceived by Professor Mel Horwitch, Director of the Technology Management program at Polytechnic University in New York City is stated below:
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 Aline Caubergs to lead sponsored research at Stevens Institute In many technology universities the area of Sponsored Research & Grant Administration is one of the key drivers of academic research, funding and commercialization of key technical advancements spearheaded by their most brilliant professors. Sponsored Research plays a key role in the process since it is the Department within the university that must navigate the often-complicated process of submitting and winning grant awards to fund research. Aline Caubergs comes to Stevens Institute to help provide leadership and direction to the Sponsored Research area after serving in a similar function at the World Population Council in New York City. Born and schooled in Belgium, Aline has resided in the United States for over 10 years and most recently became a United States citizen! Aline's new boss, Patrick Politz of Stevens Institute, commented: "We expect great results from Aline's efforts since she is very experienced and knowledgeable about the research grant award management process. Our academic staff welcomes Aline's help in not only structuring new grant requests but also in effectively managing the compliance requirements associated with the various grants and awards from both Government and Private Agencies." Aline looks forward to making a very positive impact at Stevens Institute. At KULPER & COMPANY we are pleased to have been instrumental in attracting Aline to her new responsibility at Stevens Institute and extend our best wishes and warmest congratulations. |
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 Patrick Politz, CPA promoted to Controller and Assistant Treasurer of Stevens Institute When we were conducting the search for the new Director of Internal Audit at STEVENS INSTITUTE a few years back we were fortunate to have found Pat Politz. At the time Mr. Politz was head of Worldwide Internal Audit at Parsons Brinckerhoff. To quote from the Parsons Brinckerhoff website.
While Mr. Politz was head of worldwide audit at Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), he had to travel literally all over the world carrying out his responsibilities for all internal audit activities of the firm. He became intrigued with the opportunity to come to Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ after our first conversation about the Director of Internal Audit position #00-005-004. In part, Pat wanted to make a change from globetrotting responsibilities at PB because of the constant travel associated with the job, but he was also genuinely interested in joining the financial leadership team of Stevens because of the diverse nature of the challenge combined with the opportunity to "give back" in a very meaningful way. You could say that the Institute and Pat were both in the right place at the right time--and both have come up winners. Since joining Stevens Institute in January of 2001 as the Director of Internal Auditing, Mr. Politz has been promoted twice! In January 2002, Pat was appointed Director of Finance and, more recently, to Controller and Assistant Treasurer on July 1, 2002. In addition to previous responsibilities Mr. Politz now oversees Sponsored Projects & Grant Administration, General Accounting, and Collections. Pat Politz is the real deal. We are very pleased to have been instrumental in attracting Pat to Stevens Institute and wish him much continued success. |
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 Pearce Brooks and Wanda Stevens promoted Wanda Stephens is the Manager for the Corporate Collections function for Arch Wireless. In 1997, we recruited Wanda from SPRINT into a staff leadership position in the Customer Retention/Collection area for then MobileComm, now Arch Wireless at their 1,000 agent+ call center based in Dallas, Texas. Five years later and after several mergers, acquisitions and consolidations (ARCH/MobileComm/Pagenet), Arch Wireless is now the dominant player in the paging industry. Wanda's flexibility and willingness to develop well beyond her "comfort zone" has served her well. As such, her responsibilities have expanded after several promotions to include leading project management teams that reviewed many process and technological improvements within the Dallas call center operation. Key portions of Arch's "Vision 2000" and enhanced Career Path programs for both staff and managers were part of Wanda's team accomplishments. In June 2001, Ms. Stephens was asked to take on additional responsibility for merging key processes of customer billing and care. Ms. Stephens' latest assignment is challenging in that along with directing collection efforts she has additional responsibility for managing the company's newest Corporate Call Center facility located in Irving, Texas. The KULPER & COMPANY client who hired Wanda, Pearce Brooks, VP Customer Care, commented: "Wanda has done a great job for us since the day she arrived from SPRINT. Wanda is well liked by her staff and peers because she is such a strong contributor to the outcome of the team and highly knowledgeable about the technology applications used in large call center operations." Interestingly enough, Pearce is also a hired candidate with whom we were instrumental in attracting to the company. Like Wanda, Pearce has been promoted several times since originally coming to MobileComm as a Director in the Customer Retention area of the Dallas Call Center from then Ameritech, now SBC. While at Ameritech he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago. In his most recent responsibility, Pearce oversees all customer care operations for Arch Wireless. We are pleased to wish Wanda and Pearce much continued success in their business careers. |
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| Special Olympics NJ Higgins Golf Classic July 15, 2002 - Fiddler's Elbow Since the first day we founded KULPER & COMPANY we have had a sincere interest in being involved in supporting worthy charities. When my friend, John Babcock, Senior Vice President, Private Banking at the Bank of New York and Chairman of the Higgins Classic, contacted me to ask that I serve on the Golf Committee, I did not have to think very long before making a commitment to help Special Olympics NJ .To quote from the letter sent to potential participants in the annual golf outing, here's why:
At KULPER & COMPANY, we became involved helping attract supporters and funding; always a key endeavor. The outcome of our letter writing and telephone campaign was very satisfying. Cynthia Mackewicz, President of North American Operations for MYOB (a first class "small business" accounting software company) responded to our request for support by becoming a $10,000 Tournament Sponsor. Cindy commented to me that she had been thinking about the right charity with which to associate MYOB. When my solicitation letter arrived she made her decision to get behind Special Olympics NJ. Thanks again, Cindy for your truly wonderful generosity. My friends Thomas P. Hollo, Senior Vice President, Merrill Corporation a diversified communications, document services company and financial printing concern based in New York City; John C. Traynor, Artist, www.johnctraynor.com ; and Maury Stone, Partner, Harwood Lloyd, Hackensack, NJ, joined in support of the Special Olympics by playing in my foursome. John Traynor also offered a 30"x40" framed oil painting of the sixth hole of Ireland's famed Ballybunion Golf Club in the silent auction. I wish to thank my friends, again, for their involvement in this very worthy cause and look forward to continuing to help Special Olympics NJ. I hope more friends of KULPER & COMPANY will step up to support this excellent charity in the days ahead. |
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| Board of Directors - Meeting "Post August 14" Shareholder and Regulatory Expectations: How KULPER & COMPANY Can Help A major outgrowth of the recent "fire-storm" surrounding corporate leadership failings is the renewed emphasis on what Directors of public companies need to be doing to provide meaningful assistance to the management of the companies that they serve. The key question being asked of Board Members in this current climate is: "What should Board Members be doing better or differently to meet post August 14 Shareholder and Regulatory Expectations?" After August 14th, CEO's of publicly traded companies must "certify" their financial statements--the issue of how corporate boards must function becomes increasingly important with the ratcheting up of CEO responsibility in public companies. Traditionally, the Board of Directors provides "advice and counsel" to the operating leadership of the company led by the Chief Executive Officer. On CNBC's July 29th "Squawk Box" broadcast, former CEO of American Airlines, Robert Crandall, commented that most Public Company Boards are, for the most part, comprised of too many individuals (15+), who meet too infrequently (generally, quarterly), to really be able to proactively contribute as much as they might. Mr. Crandall also said that creating special committees headed by Board members--Audit, Compensation, Finance, etc., further separates the Board as a whole from what is happening inside the company, since the issues surrounding these key areas can get compartmentalized. He stated that the Board of Directors ought to be comprised of 6 to 8 outside members who meet monthly with the CEO to review the operations of the company in its entirety. Mr.Crandall's view is certainly an interesting one in light of the fact that he was CEO of one of the largest public companies in the United States. There are many opinions about Board governing responsibilities, but Mr. Crandall's is indeed thought provoking and interesting. At KULPER & COMPANY, we believe that the Board of Directors must play an active role in helping to support the growth, development and sound operation of the company while respecting the decision making authority possessed by the CEO leading the management team. Clearly, the CEO/Board relationship is a "balancing act" that can be best measured by the long-term steady increase in shareholder value and client and employee satisfaction emanating from solid, ethical management practices. Our ongoing goal is to help our current and prospective clients attract top senior level management talent--but we are also pleased to help attract the right group of Board Members. Please call or email us to discuss this timely and important issue, as we would be glad to accept an assignment to help find and attract the right Board Members who would enhance the value of your company. Relying solely on personal networking and friendships to populate the Board of a Public Company, particularly in the current environment, may not prove to be as effective or timely an approach. We will be glad to listen and help. |
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 Firm Focus & Specialization KULPER & COMPANY, LLC PO BOX 1445 Morristown, NJ 07962-1445 973.285-3850 www.kulpercompany.com KULPER & COMPANY, LLC uses an ISO 9002 Registered Search Process to quickly and efficiently complete Senior Level Position search assignments in a highly customized manner. Keith D. Kulper, President, personally handles and/or closely monitors every step of the search process to assure the highest quality outcomes. Our clients tell us that our highly professional approach to each step in the search process is greatly appreciated because we get cost effective results. We are proud of our record as measured by our most recent ratings; Client Satisfaction 4.7 and Candidate Satisfaction 4.85 on a scale of 1-5 (5=Highest Rating). We have solid experience working on key search assignments in the fields of High Technology, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Consumer Packaged Goods, Higher Education/Not for Profit and other industries, which allows us to leverage our diverse network of people to quickly identify and qualify top candidates for the most challenging, time-sensitive and important search assignments. Our attention to detail and honest and personable approach allow us to create trust with our clients and candidates which result in long-lasting outcomes. |
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| News From... Spring 2002 © 2003 Kulper & Company, LLC designed by Sloan Kulper |