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Today's Featured Biography

 
David Dotlich

Freeport High School and our time together prepared me well for life ahead. Somehow, I managed to graduate from the University of Illinois (despite missing most classes and have lots of extracurricular interests) and went to South Africa to study for an MA degree at the University of the Witwatersrand on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship. It was during the peak of apartheid and I struggled with living in a racist regime. While doing research on racial attitudes I was asked to leave the country so I started my first company-- driving tourists from Johannesburg through Africa to London (and back). I was young and very dumb (it was also a more innocent time) but somehow survived. The experience transformed me, especially the challenge of helping people work together as a team, so I went to the University of Minnesota and earned an MA and PhD in organizational behavior. I wanted to be an academic, until I became one- and then I wanted out as quickly as possible.
I joined a big, global company—Honeywell International and moved up through the ranks to become an Executive Vice-President eventually leaving to join a spinoff consortium technology company jointly owned by the French and Japanese along with Honeywell. I enjoyed and was frustrated by the cross-cultural challenge of three diverse owners- so I left before being fired and joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Business School, teaching business leaders and MBA students.
At this point, I discovered my true passion, which was as an entrepreneur-- starting companies, growing them and selling out to public companies. My first company, CDR International was purchased by Mercer and I stayed a few years before leaving to start another, Pivot, which became a large global consulting firm and was purchased by Korn Ferry International in 2015 where I remain employed today. Along the way, I worked with clients all over the world and published twelve books on leadership. (I learned to write at Freeport High School from Mr. Meyers and Joyce Baltzer who also told me to learn to type, thank god- the most useful skill I ever learned.)
In graduate school I met my life partner, Doug Elwood, and we’ve been together forty-three years, and have two sons--Jeremy who runs a design company, and Carter who is in brand management in a cannabis company (it’s legal in Oregon and Washington, where we live). We reside part-time in Portland, OR; Palm Springs, New York, and a place called Orcas Island in the upper part of Puget Sound where we run a thriving lavender farm (where visitors are always welcome- especially if they know what a Pretzel really is). It’s been a remarkable, fun and exciting journey, grounded in the values and principles I learned as a student in Freeport High. I look forward to reconnecting with everyone at the reunion.

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