TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG

Join the OVATION-of-PRAYER for Kristina: Please.

2011-10-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG.

She's 'Everybody's Daughter' and today she needs all our prayers and warm wishes:

A beautiful and talented 18-year old in my community - Pt. Pleasant, NJ - is fighting for her life & her family has asked only for prayers for their cherished daughter. Please add yours!

Her name is Kristina Marie Corso and she is admired by thousands... If you read this blog; then go to the CaringBridge.org Website her family set up to support her - address below - you will be moved by this young woman's journey and her family's extraordinary response to it.

The family's honest, detailed, raw and brutal description of their daughter's unimaginable medical challenge and their testimony to Kristina's glorious miracles so far will take your breath away.

The FAITH of this family is so beautifully etched and written between each line that reading it is an utterly astonishing experience. I'm 52-years old and I've never, ever experienced or seen anything quite like it...

As I pray for Kristina daily, I honor her remarkable family - her mom Terri, dad Steve and stepmom Sue - for their courage, strength and faith.

Everyday I also ask God to bless her two wonderful brothers and beloved sister. May God give these children strength beyond their years as 'their' beautiful sister Kristina fights to recover. - Amen.

With Upmost respect,
TishTrek

A new journal entry titled Kristina holding steady-Day 11 @ Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,(CHOP).- 16th day of hospitalization was posted on Kristina's CaringBridge website at 5:21:00 PM on Oct 13, 2011.

Read the latest update and show your support at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kristinacorso

Kristina Corso
Welcome | My Story | Journal | Guestbook | Photos | Tributes | Resources

A note from Kristina's family: We cherish your messages. Take a moment to write a note in our guestbook or read entries from other visitors.

The JOURNAL ICON - The family's daily medical update on Kristina's journey-of-miracles...

The GUESTBOOK ICON - Prayers, thoughts and messages for Kristina & her family left by people 'everywhere' to support them during this difficult time...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kristina Corso's
Guestbook

Friday, October 14, 2011 11:02 AM

Dear Kristina,

Our thanks to Dad for the latest update! The ovation-of-prayer continues for you in English & Italian! Keep fighting!

There's a wonderful woman in Pt. Beach who restores precious art all over the world. Her multi-year projects have included the White House, Library of Congress, Museum of the American Indian, Gettysburg's Cyclorama; and the Winterthur Museum. She also spent years restoring magnificent paintings on the ceilings of chapels across Florence, Italy. I told her about you and your journey today.

She speaks fluent Italian, so of course she was thrilled to hear that you received the 2011 World Languages Department Award for Italian Studies at Pt. Pleasant Borough High School! When you return home, she'd look so forward to an Italian-ONLY conversation with you anytime! From one Italian-speaking local to another, she's thinking of you...

Through her art, she learned first hand that Italy's celebrations and love for patron saints are shown in the solemn and joyful processions which honor them.

Every town and small village has a patron saint which is honored by its people. Celebrating these special feast days brings renewed 'faith and hope' and is an important aspect of Italian life.

You are a special young woman who learned to love Italy's language & embrace her culture, so may all the patron saints of Italy watch over you and protect you so your journey at CHOP can be fluent from this point forward...

May renewed 'faith & hope' restore precious you to excellent health and return you to your family soon. - Amen.

Warm regards,
Mrs. Ferg and 'A Local' graduate of Pt. Bch HS dedicated to Art Conservation who is praying in Italian! :)

Tish Ferguson

Friday, October 7, 2011 1:43 PM

Hi, Kristina.

Last night, a beautiful e-mail arrived for you from Charlie Brady, a Pt. Pleasant hero and giant in our community who offers light and support to families struggling in the darkness of illness.

Charlie, along with his wonderful family and a group of devoted friends, founded The Carmie Carmie Brady Foundation (www.carmiebradyfoundation.com) to give back and to honor his beloved wife Carmie, who always lived the tenets of Laughing, Loving and Caring and who was the grateful recipient and witness to many miracles over THREE decades!

To help put your journey in perspective, Charlie reminded me of a book he wrote honoring his wife's remarkable life and legacy. In Chapter 25, MIRACLES, he writes, "Carmie was the recipient of numerous miracles during her life. Now she has become the instrument through which God is bestowing many miracles upon her family and friends."

Finally, Charlie asked me to tell you that he and the Carmie Brady Foundation stand ready in the wings if and when Mom and Dad need to call their name.

Love,
'Mrs. Ferg'

Tish Ferguson

Monday, October 3, 2011 11:41 PM

Kristina,

Our prayers are with you... May the strength and love of our community help keep you and your family strong; and may your great gifts and amazing abilities help you dance over this challenge with the music of a fiddler in your heart. Get well soon.

Love - Tish, Harry, Kate & Scott Ferguson

Tish Ferguson

Saturday, October 8, 2011 4:28 PM

Hi, Kristina.

May the bright light of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come keep you warm today!

This morning, I chose to celebrate your December 2010 enchanting performance as 'Silly Sister' in the PPBHS play Charles Dicken's, A Christmas Carol. You and the entire cast did a fantastic job telling the story of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation to images of light, joy, warmth and life. - BRAVO!

Today in real life a very caring person in our community e-mailed me to explain he is trying to reach out to bring some light, joy and warmth to you and your family during this difficult time.

Please ask one of your relatives to call 732-259-2780 or e-mail me @ tish509@comcast.net - so I can pass along his beautiful, humble, time-sensitive and private messge to your remarkable parents. - Thanks.

People everywhere continue to be deeply inspired by you and your fight. Keep up the great work!

Love,
Tish, Harry, Kate and Scott
Ms. Ferg (A certified Performing Arts Wing-Nut since 1972!)

Tish Ferguson

Friday, October 7, 2011 12:33 AM

Kristina,

Nice update - You go girl!

In your 2011 Pt. Pleasant Borough High School yearbook, there was a section starting on page 314 called the 'Senior Bucket List.' On page 316 your entry was #42 and you stated that one dream yet to be fulfilled was to 'write a book.' Little could any of us have imagined that your life would write an indelible story of hope, faith, and love co-authored by the hand of God.

Now stay feisty and keep fighting so I can knock people over to get to the front of the line at your book signing asap!

Love,
Tish, Harry, Kate & Scott Ferguson
(aka: 'Mrs. Ferg' - the lady who always screams, "Bravo!")

Tish Ferguson

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 10:29 AM - A hard day...

Miracles of Jesus: Calming the stormy sea
(Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25)

"While Jesus and his disciples were in a boat crossing a lake (possibly the Sea of Galilee), a storm frightened his disciples while Jesus slept. They awoke Jesus, fearful that the storm would harm them. Jesus then miraculously calmed the storm."

The 'extra' prayers of others are with Kristina today.

Tish Ferguson

Sunday, October 9, 2011 12:27 PM

Hi, Kristina.

This morning, after reading the update about the loving calm and quiet now required to foster healing, I said a little prayer as I ran my fingers across that autograph you signed for me.

In 2010, you competed in the incredible Nashville Heritage Festival in Tennessee representing vocal excellence of the highest caliber on behalf of Pt. Pleasant Borough High School. You and all the dedicated members of our Show Choir under Mrs. "B's" direction inspired judges to honor you as one of the top choral groups in the nation! Our community is still proud!! - BRAVO!

The awesome picture I cherish of the PPBHS Show Choir standing on the steps of the Historic Ryman Auditorium (formerly Grand Ole Opry House!) is framed with a mat with all your signatures and it has not left my living room since last year.

I remain humbled by this gift because when I look it, I feel the same delight I experience every time I watch a performance @ the Loren D. Donley Performing Arts Center. Audiences get to applaud wonderful students - like you - sharing talents, God-given abilities, and discipline as you all evolve before our eyes into confident young men and women eager to take on the world.

What we see is 'America's Promise' - the beautiful, talented children of others always striving to share the very best they have to offer. People will continue to pray out here to return the best we have to offer to you and your family, so just rest up and keep fighting. :)

Love,
Mrs. Ferg
Harry, Kate & Scott too!

Tish Ferguson

Thursday, October 13, 2011 1:29 PM

Dear Kristina,

Today, I celebrate your spectacular 2008 performance as Tituba in Arthur Miller's serious play The Crucible!

OMGosh - under the intense direction of Ian Kearns the cast successfully developed complex characters who hit the fundamental themes of intolerance, hysteria, reputation, and compassion out of the park! Excellence on the PPBHS stage left audiences - once again - utterly fascinated as you and the incredible cast brilliantly tackled heavy issues of the universe. - BRAVO!

Three years later, I'm reminded of that particular performance as I share this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and conveniences, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." It's ever so clear how and where you stand during remarkable & complex challenges both on the stage and in life...

Fortunately, from the halls of CHOP a message of faith & hope is echoing across Philly to NJ to Bridge Avenue to Rt 88 to Laurel Drive as your humble family serves as your understudy, sound liaison and light operator throughout this ordeal.

While you rest, heal and sleep in this moment beyond your comfort zone, your family has beautifully choreographed lessons-of-the-heart that dance inside the pages of this on-line journal. We are deeply moved.

Thousands are routing for you and we are filled with reverence & awe every time your parents recite YOUR lines: "Faith sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible." ***

Wishing you healing and continued recovery...

Warm regards,
Tish, Harry, Kate and Scott Ferguson
('Mrs. Ferg' - Admitted Drama Club Groupie!)

*** Quote, Author Unknown

Tish Ferguson

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 7:18 PM

Hi, Kristina. You've got fan mail!

Peter Cancro, the owner & founder of Jersey Mike's Subs and my friend of 40 years, just called for an update on your condition. He asked me to tell you that everyone at Jersey Mike's is cheering you and your family on!

When Peter and his Chief Operating Officer Michael Manzo attended our recent Board of Ed meeting, they very much enjoyed the privilege of honoring you as one of Jersey Mike's Class of 2011 Student Stewards in the State of NJ!

It was the same terrific night they took time to honor your classmates Andrea Berger & John Caliendo while generously donating extra-curricular funds to Pt. Pleasant Borough High School. BRAVO to you & all the heroes of that evening!

As a life-long athlete, successful business executive and champion to many, Peter and his Staff at Jersey Mike's applaud the great role model you are and the inspiration to other students & adults you continue to be especially as you fight on at CHOP! They want you to stay strong and to give it your all until the 'hometown advantage' can be yours again!

Your beautiful picture now hangs with pride on the wall at their local Jersey Mike's store on Bridge Avenue and as a result, Peter has one message for you: No Jersey Mike's Champion ever walks alone.

It's 4th and long... we're all praying the break from ECMO positions you for an awesome first down! Go, Kristina!

Love,

Tish, Harry, Kate, Scott Ferguson (#2 - Everything on it!)
'Mrs. Ferg' (Turkey and Swiss - Hold the onion!)

Tish Ferguson

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 6:40 PM

Kristina,

As Mom & Dad generously shared and so poignantly described the challenges & miracles of your journey, the light of 'God's omnipresence and omniscience' moved all of us. You have inspired us to reflect on Psalm 139, 'To the Choirmaster, A Psalm of David:'

"If I take the wings of morning,
And dwell in the unttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me."

May bright angels guard you from harm as we continue to pray for you and your entire family.

Love - Tish, Harry, Kate & Scott Ferguson

Tish Ferguson

Thursday, October 6, 2011 12:36 PM

Kristina,

We are grateful that you were embraced by calm yesterday - Amen.

This morning, I walked on Arnold Avenue headed to the beach to offer my daily prayers for you & your family. As I passed Harvey Memorial Church next to Dunkin Donuts, my walk was abruptly interrupted by the same astonishing jolt-of-joy I felt every time you and the entire PPBHS Show Choir performed inside that chamber during the Christmas Season. With poinsettias and lovely stain glass windows as a backdrop, your beautiful voice and those of your dear friends always merged as one to create a magnificent poetic echo which deeply touched our hearts. You sounded like a choir of angels; and now we know it was.

Keep fighting! The 'ovation-of-prayer' for you and your family continues!

Love,
Tish, Harry, Kate & Scott Ferguson
('Mrs. Ferg' - Show Choir Groupie!)

Tish Ferguson

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 5:00 PM

Kristina,

CHOP, CHOP - keep going!! God bless your remarkable parents who are the living definition of faith, strength and courage. As your heart rests so your lungs can heal, Mom & Dad's words have inspired thousands of hearts to 'beat-as-one' for you so you can bypass this darkness and return completely to the light of day.

The prayers in 'your' town will not stop until our beloved Pt. Pleasant Borough High School Valedictorian returns home. Under your senior picture in your 2011 yearbook, you wrote, "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do," (Epictetus). You've always been 'that girl' who knows what to do - so keep fighting Sweetheat!

Love,
Tish, Harry, Kate & Scott Ferguson
(aka: 'Mrs. Ferg' - Performing Arts Groupie!)

Tish Ferguson

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 9:44 AM

Dear Kristina,

The ovation-of-prayer continues for you... Keep fighting!

Fiddler John Conaghan of Pt. Pleasant, whose 88th birthday is on Christmas Day, offers applause to you for that wonderful duet Miracle Of Miracles you & 'Motel' (Chris Kubat) belted out during Fiddler on the Roof outside of Tevya's house on stage seven months ago. - BRAVO!

John and his wife Nadine just heard about your situation so they asked us to re-gift 48 years of their miracles and ship them off to you @ CHOP!

In 1963, John was 40-years old when cancer struck, he was told he had 6 months to live. At age 75, new illness hit; it was 1998 and there was no chance he'd make it home from the hospital. At age 86, you were a witness to his miracles as he played the fiddle he had just 'hand-carved' to celebrate you & the entire PPBHS Show Choir on the Pt. Beach Boardwalk!

At age 87 1/2, John reminded us yesterday that when he sang on the radio at age 7, he was too young to realize that "once artists use their gifts to lift the hearts of others, the musician's blessing lasts a lifetime."

Then he smiled, picked up a four-stringed instrument & a slender stick with horsehairs and played the most beautiful song just for you.

Loving Father...
"In Your love for Your Church
You have given the gift of musical ability
to these men and women of faith.
Bless them as they use their talents for Your glory
and for the good of Your holy people... - Amen." ***

With warm wishes & admiration,
Uncle John -"A Real Fiddler on your Roof" & Aunt Nonnie Conaghan - The Nurse he married 65 years ago!
Mrs. Ferg - (Caravan Mgmt for Elderly Fans who love PPBHS Musicals!)

*** (Quote from Catholicdoorsministry.com - 2007)

Tish Ferguson

Monday, October 10, 2011 2:41 PM

Hi, Kristina.

Many thanks to your parents for sharing on this site that gorgeous photo of you in your cap and gown taken at the Pt. Pleasant Borough High School graduation in June! :)

To YOU - our town's beloved 2011 PPBHS Valedictorian - we say, "BRAVO!" Your excellence as a New Jersey (NJDFL) & PPBHS Forensics Champion came through loud and clear on graduation night! Thank you for the great speech!

Thousands of us listened to your every word after we had packed the bleachers at Al Saner Field to participate in the wonderful hometown send-off celebrating you and the entire Class of 2011! You did a terrific job addressing the crowd!

I can still hear you telling fellow graduates, "This is your moment to make a change... I'm proud of our class," as you noted that a large number of graduates had raised money for worthy causes, as well as had outstanding achievements in academics, the arts and athletics.

Before you left for Drew University, your 'outstanding achievements' throughout high school had left you with so many local admirers you didn't even know...

Today, tens of thousands from everywhere are proud of your iron will and determination @ CHOP! The ovation-of-prayer continues... as your strength and bravery continues to compose an improvised speech never to be forgotten.

Wishing you warmth & rest,
Tish, Harry, Kate, Scott Ferguson
'Mrs. Ferg' - Debate & Forensics Fan

Tish Ferguson

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 12:14 PM

Kristine,

Today, I'm smiling as I recall all the times you stepped onto the stage @ the Loren Donley Performing Art Center @ PPBHS. You lit up our town every time you sang, danced, performed your music, acted and shared the wonderment of who you are. The warmth and awe audiences experienced as we watched you grow one remarkable performance at a time was pure joy! I want you to know that all the fans you inspired in your hometown are joined together now in a wave and ovation-of-prayer to help you keep fighting & to keep your family strong.

Love,
'Mrs. Ferg' - A #1 fan & Scott's mom

Tish Ferguson

Governor Christie: Wanted - a High School Band!

2011-10-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - more than THE JOB BLOG!

Help Wanted: We seek a High School Band to appear in a 3-minute YouTube music video which will go VIRAL when people hear our cry as we work to inspire Governor Chris Christie to run for President of the United States of America!

He's not even in the White House yet, and we already have jobs for 100 band members!

Best regards,
TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: Tish Ferguson ; rich.bagger@comcast.net
Cc: gearle@nypost.com ; jmargolin@nypost.com ; apeyser@nypost.com ; letters@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com ; wsj.ltrs@wsj.com ; rich.bagger@comcast.net ; susan.page@usatoday.com ; spage@usatoday.com ; jpodhoretz@gmail.com ; billoreilly@foxnews.com ; hferguson@unicef.org ; katecferg@gmail.com ; Scott Ferguson ; tish509@comcast.com
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 1:16 AM
Subject: Gov Christie: E-Mail Mgmt @ http://tishtrek.blogspot.com

Dear Team,

Sorry if your computers are smoking, but no worries my passionate e-mails will die down to a minimum. I'm giving the NJ Governor two more days and then I'm moving to YouTube with a NJ High School Band!

I invite you to my blog http://tishtrek.blogspot.com which started in January 2010 as a 'go team' inspiring self-help VirginHealth Miles Step Journey which was lovely until I broke my foot in two places changing a bed skirt; then after the coincidence of borrowing a 'loaner wheelchair' from the local Elks in New Jersey the same week all my cousins arrived from around the country because the 'same' Elks Club was presenting me with a long-planned Citizen of the Year Award! I'm not bragging, I'm trying to say, "See - you can't even make this up; life just happens and we have to go with it." I honestly had no clue I'd be chasing Governor Christie like this one month ago, but as things got worse in the country - I started not sleeping. A force bigger than me screamed use your skills and do 'something!'

In March 2010, I transitioned my blog theme to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG which has been helping and inspiring the unemployed & employment candidates in general. All these Chris Christie pleas for help will be spelled out on the site until he makes a decision, so now I call it TishTrek - "more than" THE JOB BLOG! If Governor Christie says, "no," I'd be grateful if one of you could introduce me to Herman Cain.

You see folks, I can't help the unemployed find jobs if we don't have a leader who has a clue on how to create a single job @ a time like this! Remember the Allen Brothers who President Obama honored during the State of the Union Address because they transformed half of their warehouse somewhere to make solar panels. They hired 6 people using hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars; they said on Fox News today that they could not have hired those 6 people without that funding. Are they kidding us? No.

People are buying what the Allen Brothers are selling because they are getting taxpayer funded subsidies and IRS tax breaks for saving the planet and honestly, I just can't take it anymore. What the heck is the definition of a "winner" or a "champion" in Washington, DC?

OMGosh - a note to my government people: Good gosh - I'm just a global recruiter and I can tell you that the economy just doesn't work like that! How will my children (Kate - 22 and Scott 18) and the generations that follow them ever pay back this debt that is supporting nothing that will bring a long-term benefit or bounce to our country or economy???

On my Blog - my themes are real and routed in reality. It will show you that I'm not a nut, but rather a public servant, loving mom of two, one of eight children, a wife whose been married for 25 years, a female professional whose grandparents were immigrants, a good friend and I'm 'Everybody's Cousin Tish' with a rip-roaring sense of humor! I'm praying Governor Chistie will honor all of us and our country by getting in this race.

My tag-lines are: "Governor Christie didn't go looking for this moment @ this exact time; the moment found him! I know he has the courage, guts and iron will to answer this damn call!" I hope he does. No kidding.

With upmost respect,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
732-714-8483 - Phone

Governor Christie: 99 Reasons for you to RUN!!!

2011-10-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

We're making progress in our efforts to acquire the talent of NJ Governor Chris Christie for President of the United States of America!

John Podhoretz wrote an awesome column today explaining why the excitement for Chris Christie is swelling and unbelievable - read all about it in the Sunday NY Post!

One day at a time, gang. We'll have jobs for you soon. Stay strong and try to keep a positive attitude! I won't stop writing until we acquire the LEADERSHIP you and the entire country needs! -That's a promise.

Warm regards,
TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com ; rich.bagger@comcast.net ; letters@nypost.com ; susan.page@usatoday.com ; spage@usatoday.com
Cc: jpodhoretz@gmail.com ; gearle@nypost.com ; jmargolin@nypost.com ; katecferg@gmail.com ; Scott Ferguson ; Harry Ferguson ; mgoodwin@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com ; apeyser@nypost.com
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011 5:09 PM
Subject: 99 Reasons for Gov Chris Christie to run!

Attention: Richard Bagger
Chief of Staff, Honorable NJ Governor Chris Christie
Cc: Editors, Reporter, Writers & Newspapers I respect and follow!
Wall Street Journal, NY Post, USA TODAY,

Dear Rich,

Can you spell S-O-L-Y-N-D-R-A? U.S. Department of Energy? The Fed? U.S. Treasury? NLRB? EPA? Lending Windows? I'm offering Theodore Roosevelt's 99-year old quote to spell out the definition of 'Solyndra' and to bolster my reasons for my unyielding support for NJ Governor Chris Christie who I hope will run for President of the United States of America.

In his autobiography, Roosevelt wrote, "Behind the ostensible Government sits enthroned an invisible Government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.... This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest." This assertion is explicit. We say directly that "the people" are absolutely to control in any way they see fit, the "business" of the country." ***(Source below signature)

It's ninety-nine years later and our nation confronts the exact same problem as nameless faces have been enthroned Chicago-style by the Obama Administration as an invisible Government with bottomless taxpayer-funded lending windows (No more lending from the Energy Dept until Congress completes Solyndra investigation!!) and accountability to no one. They enjoy unfettered authority to mandate rules & revenue-generating edicts that ensure government-sponsored 'competitive advantage' which favors some businesses/industries over others.

Corporate executives have no clue when the next costly government regulations, taxes, compliance fines, or code enhancements will be mandated, how much they will cost, or what agencies they will come from. Mostly their demands arrive without debate or votes in the U.S. Congress, as crony capitalism rooted in ideology @ its finest is executed with bully-pulpit tactics directed at hard-working fellow Americans - who happen to be business owners. These are the exact kind of issues that are keeping our economy stalled & so many businesses completely frozen in terms of growth and job creation.

Like that job crushing 'elephant in the room' called ObamaCare that arrived without any pricetags, corporations cannot sign one-year leases on facilities or acquire 50 new hires to expand a business unit or reinvigorate product research when 'uncertainty in the form of government mandates' deny them the ability to predict & forecast the COST of doing business for the next 12 months-to-three years, (I've worked for and been an executive member of corporate teams for 24 years and I promise you this is the reality!). Governor Christie understands this and that's why his solutions have been so good for the State of New Jersey.

I'm routing for my former NJ attorney general and current governor who has led NJ with distinction because he gets things done and operates with business integrity, ethics and stellar management courage which frees him up to call things as he sees them. During Governor Christie's September 27th speech at the Reagan Library he said, "The image of the United States is not what it was, it is not what it can be and it is not what it needs to be." As he spoke, it was clear the Governor didn't seek this moment, but the remarkable moment found him. If he's confident he can lead us all in returning the United States to what it needs to be - many will follow. I'm confident that ninety-nine years from now, his quotes, service and commitment to country will be honored & rewarded in our nation's history because he answered this call.

With upmost respect and anticipation, we anxiously await Governor Christie's decision. Thanks for passing my ten e-mails to the governor and I promise to stop writing after he makes a decision, but one more thing: I know there are campaign infrastructure issues, getting grassroot organizations moving and donors to consider, but could you ask the Governor to hurry up! Waiting for this answer is killing us! Thank you, again. :)

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
732-714-8483 - Home

***Quote from: Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). An Autobiography. 1913.

XV
THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

APPENDIX B

THE CONTROL OF CORPORATIONS AND "THE NEW FREEDOM"

Governor Christie: A Laugh Before Running!

2011-10-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

Yes - TishTrek is a little busy trying to inspire the best qualified talent to take over as the Leader of the Free World. Wish me luck recruiting our next President of the United States of America!

Another letter to the Honorable Chris Christie's Chief of Staff below! You have to give me passion points for trying! This is round-the-clock work, but I'm feeling good about it!!

I'll keep you posted!

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: rich.bagger@comcast.net
Cc: gearle@nypost.com ; jmargolin@nypost.com ; apeyser@nypost.com ; letters@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com ; wsj.ltrs@wsj.com ; rich.bagger@comcast.net ; susan.page@usatoday.com ; spage@usatoday.com ; jpodhoretz@gmail.com ; billoreilly@foxnews.com ; hferguson@unicef.org ; katecferg@gmail.com ; Scott Ferguson ; tish509@comcast.com
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 7:15 PM
Subject: Laugh before running! Go, Christie, Go!

Attention: Richard Bagger
Chief of Staff for the Honorable Governor Chris Christie
Cc: Editors, Writers, and Reporters I follow & respect!

Dear Rich,

There are literally thousands of Solyndra-Like Situations that we could end today. I'm offering to join a research team so we can list them all; force rank them; total the spending; report to the nation; and then eliminate the abuse one company/political donor at a time. Let me know if I can help!

Now - In keeping with Governor Chris Christie's terrific sense of humor, I'm asking him to run for the President of the United States of America so he can help us drive President Obama out of the White House and Washington, DC in one of those $40,000.00 Chevy Prius Hybrid Volt electric cars that GM created with $250,000,000.00 of our tax dollars. Yes - that's $250 million in taxpayer-sponsored funds on top of the $51 billion we gave them to reward their 'systemic corporate failures' in the form of Bailout Funds!

OR...

Perhaps the Governor can borrow George Clooney's $109,000.00 Tesla Motors premium electric vehicle which was created with $500,000,000.00 of Uncle Sammy's money. YES - that's a half billion dollars in taxpayer funds. Don't forget to drop by the Energy Department and make sure that George Clooney, Matt Damon and all the other electric car consumers received their $7,500 per purchase taxpayer-funded Alternative Energy Rebates - which are taxpayer rewards we give out when folks do their part to eliminate green gases, etc. in the atmosphere.

Oh and tell Governor Christie to pick up the execs @ that 'special company' who will have to show them where their Electric Car Fueling Stations are which they're 'supposed' to be building with the $130,000,000.00 in taxpayer funds we gave them to participate in the 'contrived' electric biz too.

If the Christie Campaign hyper-focuses on solutions for our economy and shows respect for the citizens who produce the tax dollars that are being funneled through the current 'invisible government' by all those nameless, faceless people, Governor Christie wins in a land-slide! So.... PLEASE Rich - pass this e-mail to Governor Christie and please continue your effort to convince your boss to run for President of the United States of America!

Finally, Brit Hume told Chris Wallace this morning that he wasn't convinced Chris Christie could win over the 'entire' conservative base given Christie's views on civil unions, gun control, etc. My response to Brit is that informed Republicans who can't work, eat or keep their lights on will 'give' on a few issues to 'get' our nation the leadership and help she needs!

Can Chris Christie win?! YES HE CAN because when it comes to the economy, business integrity, ethics, management courage and solutions - Governor Christie's ELECTRIC!

Important Note - October 31, 2007, USA Today reporter Susan Page wrote an article, 'A year before voting, a discontented nation.' I was part of a Gannett voter's panel discussion and Ms. Page wrote the following: Tish Ferguson, 48, a global recruiting manager, (@ Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.) says she "works in a market where we're worried about a recession." I knew during Ms. Page's panel discussion that the 'bubble' called the commercial mortgage-backed securities market was starting to burst; and execs in every financial firm knew that the bad investments banks had been underwriting and passing along to unsuspecting investors had started to spiral out of control. How did I know? I worked @ Citi Capital Markets & Banking and was accountable to Co-CEO's Michael Kline and Tom Maheras and the CMB businesses they co-managed. I had 85 job openings & my two recruiting colleagues had 175 on October 1st, 2007. All 260 jobs (worth approximately $40,600,000.00 in wages) were 'cancelled' on October 15th. The company would spend the next 11 months not hiring in the business/functional areas that caused the financial losses, but rather trying to manage this crisis inside Citi without a government bailout for 11 months.

The public and the media only got to see the end-result of the 'systemic corporate failures' that collapsed Lehman & Bear Stearns & inititated the bailout demands for AIG, Citi, Merrill and all the rest in September 2008. Most of these companies froze growth & hiring plans in an attempt to stop the bleeding & execute damage-control, but they failed and the economy collapsed anyway. Right now, the U.S. can't stimulate growth because the 'root causes' were not solved with TARP, Stimulus Plans, QE Mgmt, Fed policy, or any program the Government tried. Some of the bailout funds are actually being used to hide the slow-bleeding (think toxic mortgage assets not resolved) that never stopped inside these companies because Congress and the Obama Administration allowed many execs who caused their companies to fail decide how they would use the funds. How could the U.S. gov't hand out billions of dollars to hundreds of companies without tying the money to some kind of accountability or a set of standards & goals?

In closing, I've lived inside the job market for 24 years. What happens in the trenches I manage is 'a real-time leading indicator' of what's in store for each company, any economy and our country. I'm pleading with Governor Christie to run for President because right now there are no viable business solutions, no meaningful funding mechanisms, no creative ideas, and absolutely no end in sight for the Government-fueled 'UNCERTAINTY' in the market that is holding our economy and the lives of our citizens hostage. Without jobs, people suffer. Without leadership, the economy is lost and the whole nation suffers. That's it.

Go, Christie, Go!

With upmost respect,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
732-714-8483 - Phone

NJ Governor Christie: This Moment Called you; you didn't call it! Pls answer.

2011-09-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG!

I have joined 'the' giant chorus of people across the United States working to inspire Governor Chris Christie to run for President of the United States of America!

I've been writing to Rich Bagger, Governor Christie's Chief of Staff, all week. Below is the 5th note I sent to-date.

If you feel strongly that someone's moment has arrived, then make it your business to share that belief with the person navigating the life-enhancing decision!

TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: rich.bagger@comcast.net
Cc: gearle@nypost.com ; jmargolin@nypost.com ; apeyser@nypost.com ; letters@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 2:53 PM
Subject: Gov Christie: The Moment has called you; you didn't call it! Pls Answer the Call.

Attention: Rich Bagger
Chief of Staff, NJ Governor Chris Christie
Cc: Reporters/ Writers I follow & respect @ The NY Post

Rich - Please forward this note to Governor Chris Christie and his wife, Mary Pat. Thank you. - Tish

Dear Governor Christie, Mary Pat and the entire Christie Family,

This is my daily plea to Rich Bagger who I've been asking to inspire and influence you to run for President of the United States of America!

I met you at the Forte Restaurant in Pt. Pleasant and on the Pt. Pleasant Beach Boardwalk when you were campaigning for governor. Many people don't know that Mary Pat lost 658 of her colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald who were murdered on 9/11; and that your beautiful family did not know her fate that day for 8 long hours. I know your story and I knew many people @ Cantor & other Downtown firms who lost their lives because I've been a global recruiting manager in the financial sector for 24 years. One of my best friends - Marc Mruz - is a Managing Director @ Cantor and he would tell Mary Pat that my plea to you and your family is real and passionate and from the heart...

Together-separately our famililes faced the 9/11 'enormity of horror' as one. To be working moms who witnessed this history; to attend so many funerals; to see our beautiful nation under attack; to watch the unsung heroes like those in the Maritime Industry who brought a half million terrified people to safety for 9 hours straight that day were experiences that reminded all of us to put our families first.

We understand how hard a decision to run for President of the United States is, Governor Christie. We know the kind of sacrifices families have to make when parents run for and win any political office. The prospect of teenagers living in that global fishbowl called the White House would give any family pause. Having said all that, so many of us are hoping that your extraordinary family is strong and courageous enough to consider making these sacrifices for America.

The video below narrated by Tom Hanks shows the largest boatlift in human history! Just look at the faces of those men & women from New Jersey and beyond who became heroes without a moment's notice.

The moment called them, they did not call the moment. That's exactly what's happening to you now, Governor Christie!

Please watch this video; it is my hope that Vincent Ardolino, Captain of the Amberjack V, will inspire you to run for the office of President. Before Captain Ardolino risked all so others could live on 9/11, this is what he said, "I'm the type of person who can't stand by and watch other people suffer..." New Jersey has already learned that you are the same kind of man!

Here’s a remarkable 9/11 New Jersey story many didn't hear about until this video…. (my Aunt Mary sent it to me on 9/19/11 - I had never seen it before)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg&feature=player_embedded#!

Governor Christie - our families connected by this tragedy are the faces of 9/11. All of us who were there that day want to die in peace knowing that leaders who 'get it' and who 'believe in America's exceptionalism' have arrived to put the health, welfare & safety of our great nation, our kids and the generations that follow in the forefront of their decisions. That's it. That's why I'm writing to you.

I'm begging you to become America's Vincent Ardolino - become that hero who refuses to stand by while others suffer. America and her citizens need your leadership, your business integrity, your management courage, and your guts to put our nation back on a track we can all be proud of.

Please answer this call. Thank you.

My 9/11 story commuting on the SeaStreak ferry was published by the Asbury Park Press/ Gannett Newspapers, (One part of it on September 12, 2001 and the rest on the 10th Anniversary - 9/11/11). I've attached it below, so you know that my plea is grounded in reality. God bless your entire family and the United States of America!

With upmost respect,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell

Thursday, September 8, 2011
10th Anniversary: My 9/11 pen is finally at rest - Amen.

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

God bless all of you and America on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.

The Asbury Park Press/Gannett Newspapers will publish a '9/11 Memories & Recollections' column on Sunday, September 11th, 2011. I'm humbled that a piece I submitted depicting Harry & my ten year journey from 'heart-thumping sadness' @ sea to 'amazing strength' will be included, (I've shared my app contribution below my signature. It means a lot to me for each of you to have it because this is the last time I plan to write about our excruciating 9/11 ferry experience).

I also wanted to share the only photo I've ever come across which successfully captures the less publicized but 'utterly shocking moment(s)' we experienced on the waters surrounding NYC on 9/11. Allow me to explain...

We already knew the United States was under attack, so when our view of the NYC skyline disappeared in the horizon and was replaced - for a time - by clouds of smoke and debris, (exactly as the photo depicts), it led to the agonizing fear that tens of thousands were being killed in the Wall Street area because we knew so many people had not yet made it off the island or out of danger. We had no way of knowing what was going on. Like so many others, we didn't know if the attacks were contained to the WTC area; or if timed explosives were being set off throughout the corridors of Downtown Manhattan; or if approaching passenger planes would be blown out of the sky after the government ordered the air space over NYC 'sanitized.' No one knew what would happen next or how this day would end.

The picture attached above this post - which says 'it all' for many - is from a riveting book called, HERE IS NEW YORK: a democracy of photographs, conceived and organized by Alice Rose George, Gilles Peress, Michael Shulan and Charles Traub, www.hereisnewyork.com, (page 29). I purchased the book at St. Paul's Chapel (211 Broadway, NYC) - the back of 'that' church sits across the street & to the east of the World Trade Center site. It was built in 1766 and miraculously escaped the 9/11 attacks unscathed, (without a crack to a single window). It is the only pre-revolutionary church still standing in Manhattan and it became 'a reverent place' of solace & prayer & reflection for the 9/11 rescue workers.

On the 10th Anniversary, my Harry and I will return to St. Paul's Chapel and once again we will retrace 'our 9/11 voyage' from the Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey to New York City to remember, honor, and celebrate the lives of the 3,000 innocent people who were murdered as we struggled at sea on that fateful day.

We take this incredible journey each year because - as most of you know - our view of 9/11 played out while we were commuting on a ferry. Our SeaStreak Ferry captain navigated with confidence as he passed the eastern tip of Staten Island, with Swinburne & Hoffman Islands to our left and Gravesend Bay to our right. We moved from the lower bay to upper bay by passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. As we raced through New York Harbor watching destruction and fire bellow from our beloved World Trade Center complex, we stared at our beautiful Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island hoping that she too would be safe in the middle of this water. We literally gasped, then I cried as we passed the foot of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Battery Park. We navigated to the right in an effort to get into the East River as quickly as possible.

Our SeaStreak captain explained by radio that it was critical to travel 'towards the danger' to save as many lives as possible. He was 100% right. There were terrified people desperate for help on every pier in the East River and there were thousands more running for their lives towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Our SeaStreak crew helped as many people at Pier 11 as our ferry could hold. We escaped through Buttermilk Channel, that short body of water between Governor's Island and Brooklyn's west coast, and made our way back under the Verrazano Bridge heading south to New Jersey.

While we were in the lower bay, the second tower succumbed to the terrors of our society. After it collapsed, God fervently urged me to look away and I listened. As smoke engulfed NYC, (just like the attached photo shows), I literally turned my body completely around and looked only to the east and the south so the power of the magnificent ocean would give my breaking heart strength. HE encouraged me to use the Sandy Hook landscape that was to my left to counter the view that was so painfully seared and freshly etched in my mind. As I worked to catch my breath, I prayed to HIM and it was HE who embraced me and Harry until we could reach the arms of our children - Kate & Scott, ages 12 and 8 at the time.

After the captain left us in the care of hundreds of volunteers in the Atlantic Highlands, he and all the SeaSteak heroes made 40-plus additional trips to bring thousands of additional commuters from the piers in NYC to safety in New Jersey. They did not stop until this job was done. The determination and courage of the SeaStreak Crew will never be forgotten. Harry and I honor them on this 10th Anniversary and always... our thanks to all.

Before I retire my 9/11 voice, allow me to say this: When I was a teenager, my history teacher - the amazing Mr. Oxenford at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School - taught me that I was accountable for researching, learning, facing, remembering and respecting history. Because of him, I left high school knowing that a failure to understand our nation's history and/or participating in collective apathy will always create conditions and opportunities for any 'history' to repeat itself. I've written about my 9/11 voyage and all the heroes who were within my reach to watch for the last ten years to document the history I saw with my own eyes; that chapter comes to a close on Sunday.

With Mr. Oxenford's inspiring lessons in mind, my 10th Anniversary Prayer is that my children and all citizens who follow them will honor the 3,000 precious lives lost on 9/11 by making it their business to understand what happened to our great country that day and why... Over the last ten years, writing about this experience and sharing it with many of you helped me find peace. On the 10th Anniversary, I offer the attached photo as the 'final word' which proves how far we've come in the past decade and how truly resilient our nation is.

My 9/11 pen is at rest and I am grateful. -Amen.

*** See Asbury Park Press story below that was published:

Warm regards,
TishTrek

******* The Asbury Park Press, Sunday - September 11th, 2011:

My husband and I were commuting on the SeaStreak Ferry when the first plane hit the North Tower. We gasped in horror at sea when the second plane exploded into the South Tower.

As the towering infernos spewed pieces from their silver shells, we reverently bowed our heads knowing each reflection in the sky symbolized a human life that wouldn’t return home that day.

After picking up 300 people fleeing to safety at Pier 11, we escaped to the lower bay-side of the Verrazano Bridge. All eyes were transfixed on the twin towers as they collapsed into those terrifying mushroom clouds which temporarily erased the Downtown skyline from our view. No one spoke.

Our stunned silence was shattered as a passenger yelled, “The Pentagon has been ‘hit’ too!” Some wept; others prayed; anxiety ruled.

The agonizing view of this heartbreaking enormity of horror was interrupted by selfless volunteers who had lined the Atlantic Highlands to help seafaring commuters who were dazed, frozen and bound together by a silence louder than any voice we had ever heard. It was the voice of "terrorism.”

As remarkable strangers comforted & protected others, the hand of God and the voice of "William Wordsworth" prevailed during this decade of recovery and resolve:

"What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind"

— William Wordsworth, (Intimations of Immortality)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merkel & the EU: The Bailout or Handcuffs Crisis?

2011-09-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

I'm a member of the 'Economist' Discussion Group on LinkedIn and this week there were a few questions asked by members on whether or not we felt Germany should be bailing out ailing member countries in the European Union. Some people were interested in understanding what kind of risks these bailouts could carry for Germany and other member companies operating from a position of financial strength right now. Here are my thoughts on this important topic:

Let's start with a 'TishTrek Rule' in the Government Bailout Business which I think is applicable in all countries and companies: If one of the first questions you ask after a major failure or financial collapse is, "Bailout or Handcuffs?" Then there can be NO BAILOUT!

For all other situations where 100% good faith was exercised and excellent work and good intentions delivered an adverse result that systemically harmed the economic system of a country, then by all means it's appropriate to offer solutions which can potentially turn a negative into a positive for all stakeholders.

If the situation warrants handcuffs, you better use them! People who intentionally execute actions to produce adverse results for personal profit & who operate without regard to the stakeholders they are accountable to cannot by enabled. If they have the potential, skills, expertise, willingness and opportunity to repeat this behavior, they will. You cannot fail to mitigate a toxic risk that is guaranteed to repeat itself.

Having said that, let me state in general terms that it is VERY difficult (probably impossible...) to get 17 separate countries with all their unique country-centric inner-workings & local processes in silos (some outdated with no sense of urgency when needed) to agree on 'any issue' never mind try to move all countries to one giant enterprise-wide solution. Kudos to the European Union for trying!

I've been impressed by members of the EU who could pull off agreement on smaller issues, so a lot has been going well! Many admire the progress of EU while watching from across the pond, but can that model work when catastrophic issues & risky financial considerations need fast and appropriate answers? The jury is out.

Having said that, the countries that are still financially sound, (i.e. - still have successful tax revenue-producing companies that create tangible goods which are in high demand the world over; and profits are hitting it out of the park), should have concerns & questions. I'm very familiar with a $69 Billion revenue producing chemical company in Germany that is doing beyond excellent, so could Germany’s country leaders be thinking why must 'our people' carry all this 'dead wood/weight' (i.e. Greece & others) without having the benefit of them doing or guaranteeing 'great things' in return for Germany now or in the future?

Well – perhaps Germany should hang in there and fund solutions 'for a time' (that is - for a time period their country is comfortable with...). Why? Because the good people of other countries helped them out, (i.e. the U.S. used taxpayer funds to make sure Deutsche Bank was paid back 100% on the dollar for billions in subprime risks they took & lost after they were bundled and sold to unsuspecting investors. These particular transactions were run through AIG Financial Products Corp in the UK and later contributed to destroying AIG’s entire company & the U.S. economy).

The great news for Germany is that all the counterparties (including Deutsche Bank) carrying those 'known' risks had been 'insured' through those 'special' counter-party contracts AIGFP execs signed off on. In the end, Deutsche and many other banks in the U.S. & abroad were made whole with U.S. taxpayer dollars when 'our' broader economy collapsed AND AIG found itself with no funds to fulfill these CONTRACTUALLY IRON CLAD commitments.'

The U.S. Fed gave AIG the billions they needed to honor those commitments. Okay, everyone gets it - - certain businesses & transactions in Investment Banking cannot happen without counter-parties teaming up in certain areas of business. BUT some argue that it was wrong for this intentional risk and those contracts to fall on the U.S. taxpayer. Many would not expect the German taxpayer to pick up such a tab especially for companies & countries that are not even members of the EU.

With this history in mind, perhaps it's OKAY and FAIR - for a period of time - that perhaps all member companies of the EU must 'give-to-get?’ But honestly - the whole end-result MUST be determined by what individual countries and their citizens think. It's their money and their country so they should be able to determine what a reasonable period of time is, what level of funding is too much, and whether or not it is ethical to support organizations, countries, corporations, etc which have already knowingly failed every stakeholder - shareholder, client, employee, business partner, and country - they were supposed to be accountable to.

You may ask: How long do we want to reward 'FAILURE' with taxpayer funds and hand government-sponsored 'competitive advantage' to failed companies competing against 'some' number of competitors that brilliantly executed with world class standards?

Others may ask: Why are we agreeing to penalize the HEROES of the Lost Decade who didn't cheat? (i.e. That is those companies whose investors risked their capital and in return the companies they invested in actually succeeded by putting mitigating risk, executing compliance standards, living the tenets of cost-containment; and the interests of shareholders, clients, employees & their countrymen first?

Some might suggest: How about giving taxpayer dollars to companies to honor their excellence, business integrity, accountability; and the fact that their companies never showed up @ a U.S. Fed-Sponsored or EU Lending window with their hands out to survive!

Why not give MetLife Bank & the new ALICO Co, (recently purchased by MetLife from AIG) taxpayer money to lend to small businesses! They've earned it! Chief Investment Officer Steve Kandarian spotted the mortgage-backed securities "BUBBLE" & the serious risk issues that doomed all of our countries in 2005 (that's 6 years ago!) so he and the MetLife management team acted on it. They all - including rating agencies - had the same data Mr. Kandarian had. How each company acted on the data is what created the champions & the losers of the LOST DECADE. Mr. Kandarian was rewarded for putting MetLife's survival 1st when they appointed him President + CEO of MetLife in May 2011, (Isn't that a great story about REWARDING a hero and winner of this Lost Decade?)

My point is that there's a GIANT hidden problem as I see it: Massive systemic risk -in the form of toxic assets and bad employees - is still sitting inside many of these companies our sister-countries are trying to save. So aside from handing lending funds to companies like MetLife to help small businesses grow, we have to focus on the people who willingly took action that failed their companies; and who are now sitting on piles of bailout funds intended for small business growth. I promise they will spend it to dilute toxic assets that are not transparent to us, on bonuses, etc.

We have to fire and/or handcuff more people to learn how they pulled this off: I thought we all agreed that 'smoke-n-mirrors' almost destroyed the world financially?!! Then explain why ‘we’ left the majority of the employees who ‘blew the smoke’ and ‘carried the mirrors’ that harmed us inside these companies? We all missed the opportunity to fire the traders, financial engineers/ analysts, compliance/ risk, and information technology professionals who executed the steps that collapsed their companies. As a result, we remain in terrible financial danger! All employees who touch any part a Financial Trading Transaction from Direct Market Access and Order Mgmt to Clearing Ops should have their career movement monitored by FINRA and/or the equivalent Global Regulatory authorities in other countries, (i.e. A U4 and U5 system should follow everyone). Otherwise, you are firing people who simply walk up the street to my office and get hired in the same exact job in my unsuspecting company.

We ALL targeted THE BIG CEOs like Chuck Prince from Citi for termination. But, I can assure you Mr. Prince never sat in ‘the technology pit’ at the Citigroup Capital Markets & Banking (CMB) Newport Operation in Jersey City, NJ during the firestorm of mortgage fraud & toxic bundling. He didn’t have a clue.

In many companies employees were asked and/or paid to create valuations on toxic mortgage assets using bogus asset valuation models. I know this because a few of my employment candidates walked away from these 'opportunities' with their integrity in tact. Yes – Candidates with PhD’s who were Chartered Financial Analysts were asked by many global leaders to not apply tools, inputs, and required valuation models that are always required to manage the equity, fixed income, and derivative investments for individuals and institutions. Anyone who did this should be banned from the industry; and stripped of their CFA certification. I don’t care if they don’t directly face an investment client or handle the actual assets, their risk assessments, algorithms, and conclusions are critical to every client’s investment strategy and to the ‘survival’ of the financial sector.

Sadly, other employees happily rigged the information technology systems in the 24/7 trading, surveillance, compliance and other transactional areas, (i.e. $10 billion in losses @ UBS and Societe Generale alone…). Does anyone really believe that the CEOs actually knew such things were going on? I don’t believe it, but they’re on the hook anyway for their failures in hiring!

I do think Chuck Prince & other CEOs are guilty of failing to put high caliber talent around them who shareholders could trust to operate with business integrity when no one was watching. They deserved to be fired for that failure alone, but.... every company and country missed the opportunity to eliminate the actual employees & the Trading Services vendors who worked in tandem in the corporate trenches to dupe all. How come so many of these people are still employed? The professionals who operate in this kind of packs are often smarter than most employees inside every Global Regulatory Body on the planet and they know it, (i.e. think SEC and Bernie Madoff).

My worry as a behavioral recruiting expert is that this massive systemic situation means there’s a 100% chance that many of the same employees will repeat the behaviors that harmed us in the first place; and they’ll use Germany’s BAILOUT FUNDS to help them. Some of these folks walk up the street and launch a hedge fund under another name or dive into the unregulated OTC derivatives market and know one can stop them from executing new schemes in a new financial system where they can operate virually undetected as the guy who almost destroyed Citigroup. When U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, acting CEO of Citi after Chuck Prince was booted out, was bounced from Citi in NYC; a week later he was doing his business in his executive office @ Morgan Stanley in Purchase, NJ - Westchester County.

While were on this topic, we’re all fools to bailout any Bank or Investment firm without doing an audit of their vendor management & RFP programs. Make sure they have the tools & processes in place to flag executives inside their companies who are silent clandestine partners in vendor companies that win business to support their company in the following areas: Trading Transactional Services, Buy/Sell Side Compliance, Surveillance & Employee Monitoring Solutions, Clearing Operations, Pre/Post Analytics, Global Connectivity, and Execution and Routing. Employment and Contract Help agencies, Stock Loan partners or other business tied to Liquidity Services, etc. leave corporations wide open for unethical and costly problems because execs create a built-in conflict-of-interest when they own external companies that execute business with the companies that employ them. When they own less than 51% of a company, it conveniently keeps their names off contracts and under the radar of internal corporate controls.

If a vendor relationship allows a Broker/Dealer or Financial Representative to profit off every transaction or gives them a % of every deal inside the company that employs them, it puts the best interest of investors at risk. Clients won’t ‘necessarily’ be offered the ‘best price-best value’ solution or the very best equity financing deal if an Financial Rep is ‘pushing or recommending’ only the external funding partner they own or are tied to while omitting other competitive options for the client that may be available. Any company where the FA enjoys external profits or financial gains that are not transparent to the investor cannot be allowed. How do we do this?

Since this is a systemic and recognized problem in the industry, I suggest we start by regulating the OTC derivatives market just as Presidents Clinton and Obama have suggested we do; then make any ‘vendor policy’ violation by a FINRA licensed professional a felony. The rule has to be: If he/she willingly profits in the procurement of goods, services, tools, technologies, and human resources tied to the trading transactional services which support their clients and/or investors of their firm, they will be banned from doing any kind of business in all corporations that are regulated. We can never stop the waste of taxpayer Bailout Funds unless we end all these financial relationships today.

If the top and most revered government officials in Germany already figured this out, then we should stand with them and say - "No! – That is the great country of Germany has no interest in continuing the charade that rewards on-going failure like the United States has done." More importantly why give an unfair 'continued competitive advantage' to all the losers and cheaters of this decade?

If Chancellor Merkel thinks unworthy recipients are preparing to continue the assault on all people in every country touched by the subprime mortgage / CDO man-made disaster and if she believes such generosity would be robbing the next generation on every continent, then she should say, "NO!"

Every recruiter can tell you that you must have leaders @ ‘every’ level of your company who can look at facts and execute with courage & integrity. That's it. The solutions will grow on people if the manner in which they arrive at a conclusion is FAIR & JUST and most importantly if the solutions they deliver get the job done! - Tish

Outsourcing Mom & Dad in 2003: Now what?

2011-09-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

Dear Friends,

I want to share a letter to the Editor that I wrote in 2003 which I think will surprise you. It gives us all a little something to think about. In 2003, I wrote the following:

Dear Editor,

“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s mind.” - Samuel Adams

The time is now to highlight the critical impact the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to foreign countries is having on the entire U.S. infrastructure and American families in general. I have been professionally engaged in these issues first hand since 1990, so I'd like to bring the country's attention to some startling facts that explain how incredibly rampant the Off-Shore / Outsourced Employment solution has become and how it is 'silently' succeeding at threatening national security, while adversely impacting and undermining American workers and their opportunity to work, prosper and thrive.

The Wall Street Journal reported today, (Wednesday, 11/18/03 - pg 1 and A3) that AT&T Wireless will eliminate 10% of its 30,000 U.S. workers in the areas of customer service and information technology and outsource those positions to India next year.
In July 2003, the Associated Press reported that IBM planned to join hundreds of other corporate market leaders by moving thousands of US-based Information Technology jobs to India and China to reduce costs. IBM, like AT&T Wireless, views this as one of the few ways left to compete with competitors who spent the last twelve years reducing operating expenses by handing 1.5 million jobs to off-shore workers in foreign countries, while successfully eliminating the positions and benefits expenses of U.S. employees working on U.S. soil.

The Wall Street Journal and the Arizona Republic reported the weeks of July 6th and 13th that tens of thousands of Customer Service/ Support, Call Center and Relationship Management jobs will be moving to Off-Shore Staffing Solutions next. This activity has the potential to threaten the economy of entire U.S. cities including Phoenix, AZ and beyond where call center hubs have thrived for years.
Putting these economic issues aside for a minute, we already know that securing confidential data with the help of Information Technology is not a foul-proof business, so how come U.S. corporate computer systems and all the information housed in them are allowed to go to regions of the world considered hot beds for geo-political challenges and terrorism without anyone blinking as much as an eye?

As a consumer, customer, or investor how many companies asked any of us for permission to send all our identity-related data and the systems they are stored in to countries where it is absolutely impossible to conduct a meaningful country-wide criminal or employment background check on the individuals hired to manipulate this data? If you are employed full-time by a financial institution in the U.S., you don't get hired without a full employment, education, credit and criminal background check, so why lower the threshold for foreign hires in foreign lands at a time when our national security is threatened daily?

On the heels of call center displacement are the plans to send pharmaceutical research off-shore to parts of the world where researchers come cheaper by the dozen and where companies are pleased there is no equivalent for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. What will stop individuals dedicated to their vision of 'smarter, faster, cheaper for personal profit' from walking out the door with a formula, replicating efforts and mass producing untested drugs which could then be distributed to unsuspecting people around the globe? Can this be part of a new plan hatched by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry designed to create competitive advantage and to gain market share? Imagine the devastating impact this 'evolving employment solution' could have on New Jersey's economy alone.

The New York Times reported on Sunday, November 16th, 2003 that Massachusetts General Hospital is currently beaming X-rays and MRI scans to India, to be worked on by radiologists there who come nine times cheaper than the experts who are trained in the United States, (i.e. Some instances - $250K vs. $25K per year). Back-office medical work began leaving our shores during the Clinton Administration and there is no end in sight - billing, coding, collections, transcription and claims services. These new arrangements show, as the New York Times put it, "that even medical care, the most intimate and localized of services, is grappling with the globalization that has moved many jobs - first in manufacturing and more recently in white collar work - across the ocean."

How can America stay strong, if we undermine our infrastructure to the point that our skilled and educated citizens are eliminated from the employment equation? How will families keep themselves whole, when parents are being escorted to the door of their jobs by the thousands losing financial security and benefits, while the employment opportunities our children aspire to continue to move to cubicles in India, China and beyond at a minimum current rate of 1.5 million jobs per twelve year period? (These figures do not even include the long history of jobs lost in manufacturing).

The Wall Street Journal estimated that 475,000 non-manufacturing jobs had moved off-shore in the past three years alone with a guarantee that two-thirds of those positions will never return. Are we all too busy to worry about the staggering loss of employment opportunities for U.S. citizens?

Make no mistake, many companies are skipping town and country to bolster bottom lines and circumventing U.S. laws and mandates in the process. There is a rampant corporate practice of eliminating positions held by U.S. citizens over the age of
50, who are then replaced with fresh-faced university graduates from the Asia Pacific region without any practical or business experience. Research proves that at a minimum it is only one sixth the cost-per-hire, per job to engage an off-shore resource, following the elimination of an experienced U.S. worker. Yes, it's cheaper for now, but what ever happened to protecting hard working citizens from age discrimination in this county?

Where are all the executives who used to value and mandate skills and competencies that could only be acquired through 'business experience?' What happened to all the executives who knew how to leverage employee’s skills and experience to compete? As we have observed in this era, when executive pay and year-end bonuses are at stake, there are no limits to the Off-Shore solutions a company will consider.

No surprise in 'The Enron Age' that The Wall Street Journal reports that American workers with life-threatening diseases, some in the middle of medical programs and treatments, are having their jobs eliminated at Polaroid, Bank One and beyond to ensure corporate cost-containment of benefits expenses. If you don't view this grotesque practice as un-American, then you can't know a cancer patient whose job was eliminated so the company could eliminate his/her medical and disability benefits.

Much of this is being allowed and ignored by Democrats and Republicans alike under the tidy headings of Off-Shore, On-Shore, Outsourced and In-sourced Solutions 'mandated' - executives claim - for corporate survival, leaving lots of people asking where the heck is the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when workers need them? Who's giving Corporate America the free passes to ignore the tenets of U.S. Employment Law and to bypass the 'Americans with Disabilities Act' altogether with employment practices 'disguised' as 'Off-Shore Business Solutions?'

The Off-Shore / Outsourced Employment Solution gained very powerful momentum in the United States when most people weren't even paying attention. For twenty years, when the unions were yelling in the wind about this very issue lots of people didn't care because it wasn't happening in their own employment backyard. In the name of globalization and free trade, (can you say NAFTA?) 'Corporate Americas' Employment Boat' left the dock for unknown off-shore destinations years ago with the blessing of multiple U.S. Presidents and Administrations.

Along the way, executives figured out how to operate their businesses outside of the U.S. infrastructure, unfortunately too many of them evolved as experts who only know how to compete by eliminating the American worker from the equation. Those of us who represent a blue or white collar profession in any industry, owe it to ourselves, our colleagues and our children's futures to weigh in on these issues now or this 'silent killer' of the U.S. job market will continue to prevail with unimaginable consequences.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

Please Note: The unimaginable consequences in the job market that I feared in 2003 started to roll in during the Summer of 2007 for talent in many job categories in the U.S. Market. Honestly - I could have written the letter above in September 2011 because everything I worried about happening to the employment market arrived as a consequence of the Subprime Mortgage/CDO disaster and the economic meltdown which resulted in the current 2010-2011 Recession. Maybe I should have yelled louder back then. I'm sorry I didn't. - My apologies to all.

President Obama: Act on Root Causes of 'Uncertaintly!'

2011-09-24T08:40:00.001-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

This is an open letter to President Barack Obama & the U.S. Congress:

Please act on root causes of 'uncertainty" to create jobs in the United States of America.

Acknowledge the issues that are causing the 'uncertainty' in the market which put businesses on a path to pause and halt investments, initiatives, business plans and hiring. Then let's commit ourselves to forcing the entire Congress to address them!

1) U.S. corporate tax rates are the highest on the planet and they need to be lowered, (We just surpassed Japan in this regard). This fact is inspiring global companies to expand their business and infrastructure in emerging markets, offshore, etc. - they are researching every option outside of the U.S. where they can find a lower corp tax rate.

2) Any Federal Regulation or mandate accused of being 'Anti-Business' need to be assessed and measured against that charge. If our research concludes that the 'value proposition' of a federal regulation actually has an anti-competition and anti-business purpose which makes it anti-Capitalism, then the regulation needs to be fixed, changed, adjusted, eliminated. If that same regulation is designed so the U.S. government can favor one set of market offerings over others, or favor one company over ten others then we have to make the case to Congress to change such a regulation. Gov't shouldn't have a built-in system to enact mandates that allows it to hand-pick winners and losers. Why would I invest my money in a technology if the U.S. government is going to give my competitors built-in 'competitive advantage' in the form of legislation, waivers, mandates, funding, guarantees of gov't contracts, etc. @ the same time its putting strict limits on how my company can operate,
who I can employ, where my raw materials come from, where my facilities can be built in the U.S., etc. Why would investors risk investment money that has a 100% chance of being 'undermined' or 'lost' by unfair gov't meddling? (i.e. Unions and NLRB vs Boeing and the Unemployed in South Carolina; New and costly EPA Rules vs Profit Margins of already struggling businesses). Finally, any federal mandate like these that alter the playing field and the business landscape and that require our fellow citizens - who happen to be business owners - to pay millions of dollars in mandated upgrades or compliance fines should require the approval of the entire Congress.

3) Face Healthcare Reform without the politics: Honestly, I don't care if you are talking about HillaryCare in 1998/99; or ObamaCare now; or AARPCare tomorrow - Since the current Healthcare Reform Act applies to every citizen in the country - It remains the giant elephant in the Chief Financial Officer's office in every company and that's a problem. The CFO's team is responsible for doing the cost analysis for such programs per employee; forecasting how many employees in each plan category it will apply to for the next 3 to 5 years; what the long-term costs of administering the program will be, etc., etc, etc. I don't know a single employer who has any of these answers yet and that's a big giant problem that is contributing to 'uncertainty.' As employers, we can't calculate or forecast our benefits expenses per employee for a system that was mandated without a pricetag. All the corporate opt-outs that were granted to-date prove this point. Many financially conservative companies will wait years (if they must and some already are...) until they understand whether or not these costs will have an 'adverse impact' on profits or their overall business long-term. Many will not decide to enter new businesses, expand what they're already doing, etc. without financial clarity; Sooo I suggest we all commit to PHASE I in HealthCare Reform: That is only target the help for the people who find themselves with zero medical coverage in the U.S. right now. Until the large-scale issues of ObamaCare are resolved & until there is clarity on COST for the corporations responsible for delivering these programs, there will be no 'certainty,' (Still unknown: Outcome of Supreme Court challenges, costs, costs, costs, how we create catastrophic coverage pools for pre-existing conditions that small businesses could never carry alone without going out of business, etc). This 'damaging uncertainty' will continue to contribute to this 'Lost Decade,' but maybe we can agree on certain first steps that help the uninsured who need help by crafting some kind of Step I Program immediately.

4) Stop the shovel-ready Gov't Spending that rewards FAILURE! Gov't TARP, Stimulus Programs, 'Secret' Lending Arrangements for special clients @ our Fed Window, QE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... vs America's great companies that executed with excellence in 'risk mitigation' and didn't need bailouts. Think about it: Massive amounts of money delivered by our gov't that granted unfair 'competitive advantage' to companies who intentionally failed their shareholders, clients, employees and the economy when they bundled and sold toxic mortgages to unsuspecting investors worldwide, (It was on purpose, unethical and outrageous but Joseph Cassano's AIG Financial Products court case confirmed in 2010 that these acts were not illegal!) Some of America's winning companies were positioned to step in and acquire many of those failing companies that were in a free-fall, but the gov't prohibited that remedy in our free market by handing the losers and cheaters billions of our tax dollars... they gave them the money to continue repeating the behaviors that ruined our economy in the first place. We are either free market capitalists or we are not. Which is it? When we agree what our country believes in, then we can all agree on whether more bailouts that reward failure make sense and is the way to keep going. OR should we put the government stimulus money in the hands of corporate leaders who actually assess risk and act on it to make sure their companies survive.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone passed or changed one single law that now makes it a felony (with mandatory prison time attached) for any executive or FINRA licensed professional who knowingly and willingly fowards toxic assets onto unsuspecting investors ever again. I didn't think so. Wow - there's so much work to do to protect the future, finances & dreams of the generation that will follow us.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

MetLife's CEO Steven Kandarian: Subprime Era Hero!

2011-09-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than THE JOB BLOG!

Introducing One of TishTrek's Heroes of the Decade: Steven Kandarian!!

Why was Steve Kandarian, MetLife's Chief Investment Officer in 2005, tapped as MetLife's President and CEO in 2011??

Answer: In 2005, "he ACTED when he recognized the commercial mortgage-backed securities market had turned into a bubble, with banks underwriting bad investments and then intentionally passing them along to other investors." Putting MetLife's survival 1st, in 2006 he led a massive sale of risky investments which had become too big a part of MetLife’s overall real estate portfolio.

As a client of MetLife, that's how I define 'leadership.'

Thank you, Sir!

- TishTrek

Kweku Adoboli: Rogue UBS Trader or Economic Terrorist?

2011-09-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG!

We all know the tag-line: "If you see something, say something."

This morning, my keyboard spoke when I forwarded worrisome concerns regarding UBS Trader Kweku Adoboli to the FBI, Todd Schoenberger @ Landcolt Trading & to reporters @ the New York Post.

I've never been afraid to challenge situations which have the potential to adversely impact fellow citizens. That's why I ask questions; and research answers.

In the end, if a theory or concern is proven unwarranted or wrong through a thorough due diligence process - I'm relieved and grateful. I accept the results & move on...

Having said that, I believe that we're all accountable for taking steps to mitigate risks that put our society and the health, welfare and safety of our fellow man in danger.

See below...

Best regards,
TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: tharp@nypost.com ; ptharp@nypost.com ; jcrudele@nypost.com
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 8:34 AM
Subject: Kweku Adoboli: Rogue UBS Trader or an Economic Terrorist?

Attention: Paul Tharpe
Cc: John Crudele

Gentlemen:

Is Kweku Adoboli a rogue UBS trader or an economic terrorist? Could UBS's $2 billion trading loss be the result of an intentional act which was executed to support the underpinnings of the London riots? Could other London banks be next? Google www.deepblack.org.uk - "the place where conflict is creative."

deep:black co-founder Petra Hilgers photo blog can be found on www.deepblack.org.uk. Hit NEWS icon @ the top of pg; then hit Petra's Photo Blog which was announced on the site on September 6th in the 2nd bullet. When you reach 'petra hilgers' page, you'll find the anti-corporation picture (Citi & HSBC London office buildings in the background; with a black sheep in the foreground) - it's the third photo down. The site's riot:lyrics goes on to make the compelling case that the uprisings in London are far from over & agitators have lots of targets on their mind. On Aug 18th, the site shared this quote/ comment from one of her followers to inspire followers: "devoid of love - divide us & rule us; looting & destroying; look who got there first." Who do they think looted and destroyed 'us' first? The global banks?

On August 26th, Petra Hilgers posted a rant underneath her photo of the Citi, HCBC London offices which states: "White sheep or black sheep? And who’s the black sheep: the sheep in the foreground? The corporate power in the background? I like the complexity of this image which at a first glance doesn’t seem complex at all. And it makes me think of the discussions all around me about the riots in London: the temptation to divide into black & white and find easy answers when in fact things are so very complex, layered and possibly uncomfortable. I wonder: how many of us find and if only faintly that the word “riot” resonates somewhere deep inside?"

Finally, rogue UBS Trader or economic terrorist? (you decide). In your NY Post article, you write that "experts said it was difficult to pile up huge unauthorized postions with such mundane trading strategies..." I'll take that point a step further. Interview Chief Information Officers in trading execution services and they'll tell you that it's not only difficult, it's almost impossible without some kind of 'collusion' across business/functional areas to execute such trades without notice.

Whatever caused this $2 billion loss, you can be sure that Kweku Adoboli did not act alone. How come UBS order & execution supervisors weren't managing compliance workflow and the technology that helps mitigate risk by identifying questionable transactions & positions? Who ignored the surveillance requirements under Reg NMS, OATS, etc that are specifically designed to protect UBS & its shareholders? UBS is a revered state-of-the-art advanced technology shop with sophisticated data feed solutions that track both market & trade data.

Some of the top technologists, risk managers and compliance professionals on the planet work for UBS, so the lone wolf theory UBS & the media is peddling simply isn't believable.

I'm writing because I'm worried. The global banking system should be worried too.
- Tish

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

On 'this' day, Grandma wrote one last lesson...

2011-09-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - More than a JOB BLOG!

Tuesday - September 13th is the 8th Anniversary which marks the day my mother lost her battle with cigarettes. I'm celebrating her life and my love for her with a renewed message to my kids: "Don't Do As We Did; Just Don't Smoke."

Okay - call the Diet Police! I cheated on my diet Monday... It was my first "David Letterman Stouffer's Mac-and-Cheese Moment" since June. In the end, it didn't even taste that good. And - oh my gosh - Scott got home early from work and caught me in the act!! I felt like 'that kid' with her hand caught in the cookie jar!

So I ask you, why did I do that? I'm telling you, it was that familiar desperate reach for comfort food after an exhausting day and a rough week of memories. When I get exhausted, my will power heads straight for the hills. How about all of you?

Do I actually need a big neon sign on my refrigerator with a warning label that reads, "This kind of repeat behavior has a good chance of putting you in Jersey Shore Medical Center where doctors will break open your chest cavity while they put you on the heart-lung machine so your heart can keep a beat with the help of technology while they clear your clogged arteries. Your arteries will be filled with bad cholesterol from this Mac-and-Cheese you have sent through your system for 30 years?!" Gosh - logic tells us one thing; emotions beat to a drum that will take us off that cliff whenever we're not careful!

Sometimes I think about my own Mom's quest to find peaceful quiet moments during stressful times... She never sought comfort in food, but she grew up in a Salutatory Age of Smoking - meaning smoking was welcomed as an acceptable & fashionable habit which was picked up by lots of teenagers & young adults in the 1940's, 1950's and beyond. In those times, this act was greeted as some kind of tribal right-of-passage that everyone went through on their way to adulthood. And okay - let's join the chorus... Big Tobacco's marketing and advertising campaigns were the best Madison Avenue had to offer in those days! Yes - even that hunk - 'The Marlboro Man' - died of cancer.

Some people could stop the habit on a dime; for others - like Mom - they'd engage in a lifetime-of-trying and they still could not quit. My hazel-blue eyes were fixated on her throughout my elementary school years and I mostly saw the strongest and smartest woman I had ever known. By 8th grade, Mom had all of us convinced that we could become President of the United States if we put our minds to it. Eight kids make for a lot of mouths and egos to feed, but she found time to be everyone else's rock too - a special person so many turned to & called on for help - and I mean "everyone" including friend, stranger and foe alike! If you knew the teens who turned to the embrace and warmth of my parents for help between the 1960's and the 1980's or counted how many actaully lived in our home - your definition of "selfless" would be altered forever.

The term "selfless" would stay with Mom until the day she died. In the early years, it never dawned on me that perhaps she never left enough time or energy for herself... How did she do it, I started wondering when my own kids arrived? At times, could it be that exhaustion, bad news and stressful times impacted the quality of her life too?

This month, Dr. Oz informed his viewing audience that people can take up to 15 years off their life if smoking is the habit that follows them, (i.e. instead of dying at age 65, a non-smoker has a shot at living until 80 years of age!). Can you imagine? You can bet no one was announcing such risks in the 1940's, 50's & 60's when teenagers innocently viewed smoking as a kind of 'right-of-passage' to adulthood.

Having said this, what I do know is that my mom waged a 35-year valiant & silent battle that was really no ones business until she died 8 years ago. I remember her wearing the nicotine patches; literally smoking pipes and cigars; attending hypnosis & smoking cessation courses with her friend Jude at Ocean County College; chewing that special gum; and submersing entire cartons of cigarettes in wastebaskets of water to banish the tangible temptation from our house.

In our living room on Lincoln Avenue, she was ahead of her time as she 'exercised-for-endorphins' to the greatest hits of Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass before there were ever aerobic classes in any neighborhood, (Scott - that's where my love affair with brass instruments started!!). She walked on the beaches in Pt. Pleasant with the best of friends like Barbara Fioretti, Joan Spiegle and her sister, Mary; cleaned our house like a fiend to eliminate the smell of smoke, (I'm talking wall washing & windows open in winter here gang!), etc... I never put these efforts into one paragraph before, but the reality screams that my mother tried very hard so it was no wonder she would warn everyone to simply steer clear of this deadly habit that is so hard for many people to break.

As I anxiously waited for her to survive through multiple vascular surgeries of the leg, neck and beyond, followed by quadruple open heart surgery and abdominal aortic surgery, the painful message regarding nicotine could not be more clear. In an unbelieveable moment, she requested I drive her straight to the 7-11 for cigarettes as the first stop from heart surgery to home. I didn't want to; and I knew others would have made a different decision, but I did it. Mom was sitting in my car with a heart-shaped pillow protecting the giant incision up-and-down her chest and she was suffering. My gosh - It had been hard enough to watch her in this struggle with herself when she was strong, so pushing back when she was physically weak was not an option.

After I purchased those cigarettes, I began to cry because it felt as if the razor-sharp scalpels used to save her life had just etched a message in my gut that I knew one day I would write to honor her and explaining how hard she tried.

The message from Kate and Scott's beloved Grandma was clear: "Don't do as I did; just don't smoke!"

Best regards,
Everybody's Cousin Tish

Quote of the Day: "Where there is a will, there is a way."
- The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms

10th Anniversary: My 9/11 pen is finally at rest - Amen.

2011-09-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

While President Obama was delivering his jobs speech to Congress on television this evening, my focus was elsewhere so I wrote the following:

God bless all of you and America on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.

The Asbury Park Press/Gannett Newspapers will publish a '9/11 Memories & Recollections' column on Sunday, September 11th, 2011. I'm humbled that a piece I submitted depicting Harry & my ten year journey from 'heart-thumping sadness' @ sea to 'amazing strength' will be included, (I've shared my app contribution below my signature. It means a lot to me for each of you to have it because this is the last time I plan to write about our excruciating 9/11 ferry experience).

I also wanted to share the only photo I've ever come across which successfully captures the less publicized but 'utterly shocking moment(s)' we experienced on the waters surrounding NYC on 9/11. Allow me to explain...

We already knew the United States was under attack, so when our view of the NYC skyline disappeared in the horizon and was replaced - for a time - by clouds of smoke and debris, (exactly as the photo depicts), it led to the agonizing fear that tens of thousands were being killed in the Wall Street area because we knew so many people had not yet made it off the island or out of danger. We had no way of knowing what was going on. Like so many others, we didn't know if the attacks were contained to the WTC area; or if timed explosives were being set off throughout the corridors of Downtown Manhattan; or if approaching passenger planes would be blown out of the sky after the government ordered the air space over NYC 'sanitized.' No one knew what would happen next or how this day would end.

The picture attached above this post - which says 'it all' for many - is from a riveting book called, HERE IS NEW YORK: a democracy of photographs, conceived and organized by Alice Rose George, Gilles Peress, Michael Shulan and Charles Traub, www.hereisnewyork.com, (page 29). I purchased the book at St. Paul's Chapel (211 Broadway, NYC) - the back of 'that' church sits across the street & to the east of the World Trade Center site. It was built in 1766 and miraculously escaped the 9/11 attacks unscathed, (without a crack to a single window). It is the only pre-revolutionary church still standing in Manhattan and it became 'a reverent place' of solace & prayer & reflection for the 9/11 rescue workers.

On the 10th Anniversary, my Harry and I will return to St. Paul's Chapel and once again we will retrace 'our 9/11 voyage' from the Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey to New York City to remember, honor, and celebrate the lives of the 3,000 innocent people who were murdered as we struggled at sea on that fateful day.

We take this incredible journey each year because - as most of you know - our view of 9/11 played out while we were commuting on a ferry. Our SeaStreak Ferry captain navigated with confidence as he passed the eastern tip of Staten Island, with Swinburne & Hoffman Islands to our left and Gravesend Bay to our right. We moved from the lower bay to upper bay by passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. As we raced through New York Harbor watching destruction and fire bellow from our beloved World Trade Center complex, we stared at our beautiful Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island hoping that she too would be safe in the middle of this water. We literally gasped, then I cried as we passed the foot of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Battery Park. We navigated to the right in an effort to get into the East River as quickly as possible.

Our SeaStreak captain explained by radio that it was critical to travel 'towards the danger' to save as many lives as possible. He was 100% right. There were terrified people desperate for help on every pier in the East River and there were thousands more running for their lives towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Our SeaStreak crew helped as many people at Pier 11 as our ferry could hold. We escaped through Buttermilk Channel, that short body of water between Governor's Island and Brooklyn's west coast, and made our way back under the Verrazano Bridge heading south to New Jersey.

While we were in the lower bay, the second tower succumbed to the terrors of our society. After it collapsed, God fervently urged me to look away and I listened. As smoke engulfed NYC, (just like the attached photo shows), I literally turned my body completely around and looked only to the east and the south so the power of the magnificent ocean would give my breaking heart strength. HE encouraged me to use the Sandy Hook landscape that was to my left to counter the view that was so painfully seared and freshly etched in my mind. As I worked to catch my breath, I prayed to HIM and it was HE who embraced me and Harry until we could reach the arms of our children - Kate & Scott, ages 12 and 8 at the time.

After the captain left us in the care of hundreds of volunteers in the Atlantic Highlands, he and all the SeaSteak heroes made 40-plus additional trips to bring thousands of additional commuters from the piers in NYC to safety in New Jersey. They did not stop until this job was done. The determination and courage of the SeaStreak Crew will never be forgotten. Harry and I honor them on this 10th Anniversary and always... our thanks to all.

Before I retire my 9/11 voice, allow me to say this: When I was a teenager, my history teacher - the amazing Mr. Oxenford at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School - taught me that I was accountable for researching, learning, facing, remembering and respecting history. Because of him, I left high school knowing that a failure to understand our nation's history and/or participating in collective apathy will always create conditions and opportunities for any 'history' to repeat itself. I've written about my 9/11 voyage and all the heroes who were within my reach to watch for the last ten years to document the history I saw with my own eyes; that chapter comes to a close on Sunday.

With Mr. Oxenford's inspiring lessons in mind, my 10th Anniversary Prayer is that my children and all citizens who follow them will honor the 3,000 precious lives lost on 9/11 by making it their business to understand what happened to our great country that day and why... Over the last ten years, writing about this experience and sharing it with many of you helped me find peace. On the 10th Anniversary, I offer the attached photo as the 'final word' which proves how far we've come in the past decade and how truly resilient our nation is.

My 9/11 pen is at rest and I am grateful. -Amen.

*** See Asbury Park Press submission is below.

Warm regards,
TishTrek

******* The Asbury Park Press, Sunday - September 11th, 2011:

My husband and I were commuting on the SeaStreak Ferry when the first plane hit the North Tower. We gasped in horror at sea when the second plane exploded into the South Tower.

As the towering infernos spewed pieces from their silver shells, we reverently bowed our heads knowing each reflection in the sky symbolized a human life that wouldn’t return home that day.

After picking up 300 people fleeing to safety at Pier 11, we escaped to the lower bay-side of the Verrazano Bridge. All eyes were transfixed on the twin towers as they collapsed into those terrifying mushroom clouds which temporarily erased the Downtown skyline from our view. No one spoke.

Our stunned silence was shattered as a passenger yelled, “The Pentagon has been ‘hit’ too!” Some wept; others prayed; anxiety ruled.

The agonizing view of this heartbreaking enormity of horror was interrupted by selfless volunteers who had lined the Atlantic Highlands to help seafaring commuters who were dazed, frozen and bound together by a silence louder than any voice we had ever heard. It was the voice of "terrorism.”

As remarkable strangers comforted & protected others, the hand of God and the voice of "William Wordsworth" prevailed during this decade of recovery and resolve:

"What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind"

— William Wordsworth, (Intimations of Immortality)

"Balanced Budget Amendment": There I said it, Alan!

2011-08-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!!

TishTrek answers some important questions in a discussion on LinkedIn started by Alan Liss on LinkedIn:

Alan asks: "Did S&P downgrade America's AAA rating because of "Tea Party Terrorists" or because both parties in Congress are incapable of making the difficult cuts in spending?"

"S&P… said the bi-partisan agreement reached this week to find $2.1 trillion in budget savings “fell short” of what was necessary to tame the nation’s debt over time and predicted that leaders would have no luck achieving more savings later on. I say let’s blame the only group that actually took a principled stand to stop the insane spending - The Tea Party! I know all of our defenders of the Obama administration will. Can anybody finally say “Balanced Budget Amendment”?"

"U.S. Loses AAA Credit Rating as S&P Downgrades on Concerns Over Debt..." @ bloomberg.com: "The U.S. had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time by Standard & Poor’s on concern spending cuts agreed on by lawmakers to raise the nation’s borrowing limit won’t be enough to reduce record deficits."

In TishTrek's professional opinion, the U.S. has a big umbrella problem and it applies to all political parties and every institution in Washington DC - the search for high caliber talent failed so there aren't enough leaders who can multi-task within a 60-mile radius of Capitol Hill, but let's focus on the S&P downgrade...

Make no mistake, the downgrade from AAA to AA+ was the result of more factors than we can count. I don't understand all the people out there looking at these challenges through the paradym of a single issue, talking point, or vitriolic label.

Targeting the Tea Party, the Obama Administration & Spending Cuts in volatile silos won't solve the 'other' root causes which - in a big way - contibuted to the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. The U.S. is $14 trillion in debt and tracking to a $22 trillion debt burden as a result of last week's Debt Ceiling Deal. USA TODAY SURVEY on August 3rd, 2011 read as follows: "Here's one you can take to the BANK!" 8/4/11 quote from writer Susan Page: "The hard-won, last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit gets low ratings from Americans, who by more than 2-1 predict it will make the nation's fragile economy worse rather than better."

Few were surprised by the downgrade BECAUSE Americans and S&P are not just myopically focused on the Debt Ceiling! We see spending as one tangible risk that is within our reach to mitigate at a time in our nation's history when we are deeply worried about business factors & trends that are mostly out of our nation's control, which - COMBINED WITH OUT-OF-CONTROL SPENDING equates to an alarming systemic risk that 'could' threaten our economic stability for more than a decade. The list includes, but is not limited to:

1) Alarmingly weak GDP growth, (i.e. Contrary to what many 'experts' are suggesting, I have to say you can't add 100 new jobs to my brother's restaurant and think additional customers will show up Friday night because the system doesn't work like that. We need more repeat customers to DEMAND our dining services FIRST; then we get to add additional employees to meet the demand ; 2) U.S. smoke-&-mirror job numbers that don't add up or reflect reality worry everybody (these #'s which are 'revised' way too often to be believed (per CNBC) & include ONLY the # of citizens who apply for benefits for the first time AND exclude the # of unemployed who stopped getting benefits; those who stopped looking for jobs or who are grossly under-employed with no end in sight; 3) No one is counting the millions of unemployed & undocumented citizens who are suffering & out of work & don't qualify for unemployment because they never had the chance to pay into the system, (Analysts are trying to project what it will cost the Federal & State Gov'ts to fund housing, food, education & medical needs so this population can survive throughout this economic downturn) ; 4) News reports & competitive intelligence confirm that 2011 corporate cost-containment initiatives will continue to include tens of thousands of rolling layoffs in the U.S. between today and December 31st as companies work tirelessly to meet their year-end revenue goals in an R-o-E / R-o-I challenged environment; 5) New anti-biz regulations rolled out in the U.S. this year by the Environmental Protection Agency, National Labor Relations Bd, etc have stopped regional industries & other corporate activities in their tracks across the U.S. without the U.S. Congress having an opinion or vote on such matters (Whether you agree with the EPA or NLRB policy is not the issue during a rating assessment. Analysts have to project the adverse impact of these numbers on the economy as this trend and other policies important to the Obama Admin continue); 6) it is reported that the U.S. just surpassed Japan to become the highest 'corporate tax hustler' on the planet, (i.e. - Meaning businesses large & small must plan for a higher tax burden if their business stay on U.S. soil. If they move large business/functional areas or U.S.-centric parts of their businesses out of the U.S. to escape such burden it will have a financial impact on the U.S. economy). 7) Goldman Sachs, HSBC, & others just announced that there is now a hyper-focus inside their companies on emerging markets... HSBC is exiting much of it retail biz in the U.S. (Last wk, it sold 195 bank branches to First Niagara in Upstate New York; its in-process right now of selling its credit card biz to CapitalOne, etc), so Chartered Financial Analysts & other experts are assessing these business trends & decisions and they're forecasting what will be the financial impact of companies rapidly exiting certain U.S. industries & communities; they also have to project where the increased corp tax revenue & jobs will come from if too many of the traditional companies who always executed business & created jobs in the U.S. begin what some worry could become the 'Largest Funded Emerging Market Initiative' in corporate history as companies flee the U.S. to gain market share abroad in an effort to meet business & revenue goals in environments with less taxes and government regulation, (i.e. WHERE companies plan to grow their business over the next three years is a critical data point for the U.S. economy); 8) Then there's the Fed & the Treasury Head: The Fed-led 'paper-over-it' approach, the smoke & mirrors of QE2, bail-this-&-that-out, and TARP didn't accomplish the most important stated goals. Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent for short-lived gains & some want us to keep the print shop open - (The questions Americans & countries all over the world have is who's focused on the value of the dollar?); It's actually been reported that the 'paper-over-it approach' inspired a couple of foreign powers (Russia & China) to 'chat' recently about eliminating the 'declining dollar' as the world's reserve currency, (Don't laugh or call me a crack-pot! I know most think that would be impossible? BUT... if they're chatting about this topic somewhere in the world, we have to be focused on it. Americans (and the whole world for that matter) didn't think Lehman Brothers, AIG and Bear Stearns would go out-of-business in 5 minutes either, so now we know all risks within our reach must be researched, mitigated & eliminated. AND reducing the Debt of the United States falls under that mandatory & critical category.

Finally - I have to say this: FOR 10 YEARS, an army of PhD mathematicians & CFA economists were paid by Wall Street firms to assign contrived 'Triple A' ratings to the Mortgage/Subprime/CDO clandestine bundles as these risky & toxic bets were sold to unsuspecting investors & institutions worldwide, (Go back and research the analysis; take it a step futher - check out how one analyst involved in this mess approached valuations for other asset classes and compare it to what he/she did in the Mortgage/Subprime market. My gosh - you'll cry!). The massive & collusive lack of integrity, objectivity and the failure to execute the responsibilities of their profession wrecked our economy. Where were we and the leaders inside Washington DC & inside these multinational corporations, and inside foreign governments when all of this was planned & executed? How come one lone analyst in Oppenheimer - Meredith Whitney - was the only one with the management courage to warn the world about these toxic bets that were about to send shock waves across the world?! (Everyone should note that people in power viciously attacked Ms. Whitney personally and savaged her spot-on opinions the same way they are attacking S&P now).

Let's hope Standard & Poors is trying to transcend that era of horrific transgressions. Let's also hope all Americans can skip 'talking points' and the attack on 'worried messengers' to focus on solutions. Right now, the U.S. can certainly use help from any 'expert' & 'thinker' who was raised to operate with integrity!

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

Economic Intelligence Group: Opinions-R-Us!

2011-08-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

I answered a couple of interesting questions that my contact Lucas asked on the 'Economics Intelligence Group' Site on LinkedIn today. I love being part of this group because so many members ask inspiring & throught-provoking questions and people really take the time to offer thoughtful, researched responses!

1) AUM - The term means'Assets-Under-Management' (Increase financial value of the happy repeat customers who are already being serviced by your financial institutions). Create new products, services & market offerings so you can manage customer financial transactions areas outside of investment already under your care. Morgan Stanley created a new Private Bank (Charter approved- July 2010) in a race to offer Commercial Banking & Lending services to the clients already being serviced by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's 18,900 Financial Advisors. New biz model: FA in front seat still driving the car to his/her repeat customer; but now a NEW Private Banker is in the backseat of the same car offering the types of financial solutions that will expand the financial relationship, (i.e. FA has managed a client's investment portfolio for 20 years; Morgan Stanley is betting it has earned the right to now manage the commercial cash management & card services transactions for this client's $500MM commercial business which is currently handled by Bank of America or Wachovia).

2) Why is the wrong talent often left in tact to drive business goals off cliff? Power; politics; corporate relationships; 'clandestine biz agendas' that are in the best interest of a few without regard for the overall mission or goals of a company or the world economy, (i.e. Joseph Cassano the head of AIG Financial Products moved himself & some 'special' employees reporting directly to him out of their offices in Greenwich, CT to the UK so they could more easily execute the iron-clad counterparty contracts (their financial partners get paid 100% on the dollar when the risky bets go south) & employment contracts (each executive is guaranteed millions in bonus payouts even after the deals fail because 'Contract Law' prevails) - all signed BEFORE they started executing their clandestine transactions which contributed to the mortgage/subprime/CDO/Counterparty disaster & ruined AIG (- i.e. I've been recruiting these guys for 24 years: if leaders don't operate with 'leader behaviors,' the risk you CANNOT mitigate is incalculable); finally - myopic thinking often gets in the way of making changes in talent or org structures that would be important for the success of a business.

People want to retain power, status, position as organizations flourish, change, expand, become more profitable, BUT... rapid expansion in corp responsibilities often requires new talent that 'will' scale FAST. Talent that has been there; done it; delivered it; delivered it again in other companies & that owned the accountability for the business benefits realized have the unique perspective to look @ new challenges through the window & paradym of former successes &/or failures.

In my experience, lots of 'competitive advantage' is born when leveraging those kinds of experiences. i.e. Cisco Systems in mid-90's: WHEN an office in a region exceeded $65MM in revenues, the region would be split in half immediately; a new office would open; a new sales manager & sales team would be hired; we'd transfer some # of people in split; & replace the regional mgr who never managed revenues > $65MM. FOCUS on revenue goals drove decisions. If the best sales exec was given too big of a region to manage and it hurt time-to-close stats, revenues would be missed - which was not an option.

Also people who are great operating in a biz silo where they have executed with excellence and with comfort for years do not always have the skills that can scale to 'enterprise-wide' initiatives. That's reality I've lived in every company. People can retain important roles in the org, but they'd be leveraging their skills differently. Internal employees & external candidates shouldn't be elevated to the top job without a thorough and objective assessment that determines they're a 'leader' & that they have the skills to deliver on the mission & goals of the organization.

Best regards,
TishTrek

Political Economy & Economic Life: The Blurred Lines that Matter

2011-08-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

I commented on "Global Economic Downturn: A Crisis of Political Economy" as a 'pending' member of the Economist Group on LinkedIn today:

This week is our Crisis of Political Economy - Part II:

A 20+ year corporate strategy executed by Wall Street firms was to make sure their executives (past & present) had a systemic presence & financial decision authority in every facet of the U.S. government, (See partial list below***). This agenda damaged the U.S. economy & rocked world markets to their core because the success of this mission completely merged the relationship, the lines & the issues of political order and economic life in the United States.

Most taxpayers going about their daily business were blinded by 'talking points' & they bought into 'scripted explanations' that willfully omitted important facts intended for non-economist voters. During clandestine times - like this - it is always a goal "not to quite tell the full story," (Economist Group member Matthijs R. Koot referenced this universal theme in his EIU comment today as well).

Wall St execs (especially Goldman Sachs...) brilliantly & intentionally leveraged the power of the U.S. government, the World Bank, the EU, Regional Banking Commissions, etc, etc to bolster self-interests and the interests of their high net worth customers & institutions, (Traditional lobbying had almost become passe' in 2000 because it is time-consuming & the desired outcomes could not be controlled or guaranteed in the evolving era of electronic trading & high-end transactional services, so banking leaders figured out that being a Washington DC powerbroker & insider was 'the' solution to create the legislative competitive advantage their businesses needed ASAP!).

To achieve all the goals tied to Wall Street's economic self interest during the systemic & intentional mortgage/subprime/CDO/Counterparty events, it required unprecedented & massive assistance from the U.S. governement and it demanded the exclusion of the interests of taxpayers & society as a whole, (These people planned & executed the mortgage-backed agenda before, during and for 8 years following 9/11). OMG.

In the end, they collected awesome commissions, created iron clad counterparty & employment contracts, moved & invested the inflated profits to hedge funds, stock loan, equity research, outsourcing, info technology contracting, retained search et al LLCs owned by affluent corporate friends, former colleagues in their socio-economic league &/or relatives. It was sad & simply terrible to watch people dismantle the companies that the 'Greatest Generation' had handed to their children to help propel America forward.

At the same time, they put all their risky bets, as well as the debts and failures of their Wall Street companies and their counterparties on the backs of U.S. taxpayers, their children and grandkids. They destroyed some of the greatest global companies on the planet, wreaked havoc on the world economy, robbed the financial security of innocent unsuspecting citizens at home & abroad, left millions of hard working people without jobs, left non-profits with unemployed & financially strapped donors, and the list goes on...

When electing politicians, hiring executives, and/or during confirmation hearings of gov't officials, look for leaders who understand that a balance between political order and economic life is key when the health, welfare, and financial security of people the world over is @ stake. Everyone who did this to the world economy knew they were doing it, but unfortunately they were not raised to 'care.'

***(Treasury Secretary, Chairman of the Fed Reserve, State Government, Banking Committees, etc. - (Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Paul Volcker, Paul Paulson, Jon Corzine, & giants of Wall Street et al).

If you don't know our collective history; then history is destined to repeat itself again & again & again... That's why we're here.

Best regards,
TishTrek

John Chambers, CFA, @ S&P = Gold Standard Integrity!

2011-08-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

As I've explained in previous posts, hiring high caliber talent is the key to competitive advantage. I've enjoyed the privilege of helping multinational corporations reach their goals one new hire at a time for over 20 years. During that time, I've been directly responsible for sourcing, identifying, recruiting and hiring literally hundreds of Financial Engineers/ Analysts who assess & forecast credit and operational risk as part of their responsibility to the investors and institutions they are accountable to.

This weekend as a result of the downgrade of U.S. credit to double-A+ from Triple A, we are watching an unprecedented & massive attack on Standard & Poors and S&P executive John Chambers who is being called, "the Wall Street bean counter who trashed America's global credit reputation," under headlines that scream, "Downgrade 'doer' was no biz wiz." Who do these writers think they're kidding?

I wrote the following letter to the editor to The New York Post this morning because their vicious attack on Mr. Chambers left me wondering why their reporters didn't research what a 'Chartered Financial Analyst' is or what it takes to become one.

People who want to intelligently argue the merits of the downgrade with facts that can counter S&P's arguments for downgrading U.S. credit should come forward and make their case. Obnoxious verbal tirades directed at Standard & Poors and vicious personal attacks directed @ S&P's in-house messenger John Chambers - do nothing to promote solutions and only serve to divert energy and time away from solving these critical issues of our time.

HELP WANTED: Leaders who can assess S&P's long-overdue & strong message, as well as the spending, debt, and credit issues that put our nation in this position in the first place.

-TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: letters@nypost.com
Cc: jcrudele@nypost.com
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2011 9:50 AM
Subject: John Chambers @ S&P: Gold Standard Integrity vs 100 PhDs

Dear Editor,

Inside rating agencies, teams of PhD professionals execute risk assessments, not one man. S&P's John Chambers is a Chartered Financial Analyst, (CFA), which is considered a gold standard credential in the field of investment analysis, so kudos to him for having the 'management courage' and guts to call the U.S. credit situation exactly as he sees it.

As a CFA, Mr. Chambers is trained to operate with 'business integrity' - which includes the 'ethics' that went missing for ten years as financial engineers/ analysts were pressured to create the bogus algorithms & rating formulas which hid the systemic risks of the mortgage/subprime/CDO disaster.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell

I Google 'Chartered Financial Analyst' to get my hands on some content that could counter the arguments of ignorant talking heads who are operating without a clue...

• Many high caliber/ best-in-class Financial Engineers make it their business to become Chartered Financial Analysts. A focus on the CFA Certification curriculum - which I’ve included below - supports the fact that these positions can easily be grouped across businesses because they are part of a job category which demands objectivity and qualifies for international professional designation by a Certified professional organization recognized worldwide.

• The focus on ETHICS, Quantitative Analysis, Economics, Accounting, Security Analysis and Portfolio Management in this profession is universal in scope and literally applies to all industries from financial services to pharmaceutical, (and all asset classes). The calculations and financial models executed by a Financial Engineer in any unit requires a valuation,(***see definition below), the process of estimating the potential market value of a financial asset or liability. The valuation is data that is relied on to forecast whether the incorporation of a financial instrument into a portfolio will benefit the stakeholders the Financial Engineer is accountable to.

• The work of a Financial Engineer helps drive business decisions on issues like asset allocation, portfolio risk and performance, etc. All these benefits are the direct result of the Financial Engineer integrating independent market data, transparent financial and risk reports, complex data and financial models and proprietary valuations for any company that is trying to estimate the potential market value of a financial asset or liability.

***In finance, valuation is the process of estimating the potential market value of a financial asset or liability. Valuations can be done on assets (for example, investments in marketable securities such as stocks, options, business enterprises, or intangible assets such as patents and trademarks) or on liabilities (e.g., Bonds issued by a company). Valuations are required in many contexts including investment analysis, capital budgeting, merger and acquisition transactions, financial reporting, taxable events to determine the proper tax liability, and in litigation.

"CFA Certification actually strengthens the objectivity of an organization & bolsters credibility." - Tish

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) is an international professional designation offered by the CFA Institute (formerly known as AIMR) to financial analysts who complete a series of three examinations. In order to become a CFA Charterholder candidates must pass all three six-hour exams, possess a bachelor's degree (or equivalent, as assessed by the CFA institute) and have 48 months of work experience in an investment decision-making position. CFA charterholders are also obligated to adhere to a very strict Code of ETHICS and STANDARDS governing their professional conduct.

The curriculum includes:
• Ethical and Professional Standards
• Quantitative Methods (such as the time value of money, and statistical inference)
• Economics
• Financial Reporting and Analysis
• Corporate Finance
• Analysis of Investments (stocks, bonds, derivatives, venture capital, real estate, etc.)
• Portfolio Management and Analysis (asset allocation, portfolio risk, performance measurement, etc.)

Study materials for the CFA Exams are available from numerous learning providers (http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/resources/guidelinesparticipants.html) including Elan Guides (www.elanguides.com), Kaplan Schweser (www.schweser.com), and Stalla Review (www.stalla.com).

ETHICS
The ethics section is primarily concerned with compliance and reporting rules when managing an investor's money or when issuing research reports. Some rules pertain more generally to professional behavior (such as prohibitions against plagiarism); others specifically relate to the proper use of the designation for charterholders and candidates. All of these rules are delineated in the 'Code and Standards'.

Quantitative analysis
The curriculum is dominated by statistics; other topics such as the time value of money are also addressed. The topics are fairly broad, covering standard topics such as hypothesis testing, regression analysis and time series analysis, as well as portfolio related topics. (Some quantitative topics are covered in other sections, for example, calculating depreciation of assets is a part of financial statement analysis (accounting), and determining currency arbitrage is a part of international economics.)

Economics
Both micro- and macroeconomics are covered, including international economics (mainly related to currency conversions and how they are affected by international interest rates and inflation). By Level III, the focus is on applying economic analysis to portfolio management and asset allocation.

Accounting
Accounting is heavily tested at Levels I and II, but is not a significant part of Level III. The Curriculum includes financial statement analysis and corporate finance.

Security analysis
The curriculum includes coverage of global markets, as well as analysis of the various asset types: equity (stocks), fixed income (bonds), derivatives (futures, forwards, options and swaps), and alternative investments (Real Estate, Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Commodities). The first levels of the test require familiarity with these instruments; the focus of Level II is valuation; Level III studies incorporation of these instruments into portfolios.

Portfolio management
This section increases in importance with each of the three levels - it integrates and draws from the other topics, including ethics. It includes Modern portfolio theory (efficient frontier, Capital asset pricing model, etc); investment practice (defining the investment policy, resultant asset allocation, order execution); and measurement of investment performance.

THE CODE OF ETHICS
Members of CFA Institute (including charterholders and candidates for the CFA designation) must:
• Act with integrity, competence, diligence, respect, and in an ethical manner with the public, clients, prospective clients, employers, employees, colleagues in the investment profession, and other participants in the global capital markets.
• Place the integrity of the investment profession and the interests of clients above their own personal interests.
• Use reasonable care and exercise independent professional judgment when conducting investment analysis, making investment recommendations, taking investment actions, and engaging in other professional activities.
• Practice and encourage others to practice in a professional and ethical manner that will reflect credit on ourselves and the profession.
• Promote the integrity of, and uphold the rules governing, capital markets.
• Maintain and improve their professional competence and strive to maintain and improve the competence of other investment professionals

TishTrek's Candidate Assessment of John Chambers: He is a Columbia University scholar & graduate with CFA Certification who has a long standing history as a key decision-maker and leader in Financial Services. Mr. Chambers is a high caliber talent who is looking at the nation's credit challenges through the window and paradym of all the challenges he has succeeded and/or failied at during his career.

He lives the kind of leader behaviors that matter most in work and life, which has been a topic of THE JOB BLOG many times. Mr. Chambers operates with business intergrity, high standards, values and ethics. He possesses the 'management courage' and the guts to do what's right even when his conclusion or solution is wholly unpopular. The fact that his commitment to objectivity - enhanced through teamwork and collaboration - can't be interrupted for personal profit or swayed by external henchmen means his actions can be trusted.

If there had been more leaders like Mr. Chambers in the trenches of Banking and Wall Street from 2000 to 2011, the mortgage/subprime/CDO plot that destroyed our economy and jobs could never have played out. I know this to be the case because many of my employment candidates got caught in the terrible cross-fire of dishonest actions focused only on short-term stints for personal profit.

When executives fail to live the tenets of leader behaviors, bailouts for the brands they willingly destroyed have to end.

Hope this is helpful. - TishTrek

Focus on 'WOW' not the DOW!

2011-08-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Finally, some real jobs to talk about!!! HOORAY!!

Ignore the 512.76 point drop in the Dow today! Stay positive! Join me...

Focus on WOW not the DOW! An awesome 5 year old start-up tech company is getting a ton of attention from the top Technology Executives and Venture Capital Groups of our time!

Why continue counting other people's money when you can create something tangible inside the future of an evolving industry?

If you're tops in getting your foot in doors and/or have exceeded quotas selling on-line services, medical devices, office supplies, copy machines, whatever, pls reach out to Tish509@comcast.net.

It's a WOW MOMENT complete with 100+ open positions!

Yes - Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Best regards,
TishTrek

JOB #s & Those Who Couldn't Count!

2011-08-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Don't count or read the JOB NUMBERS! THEY ARE NEVER CORRECT!

Is the government giving us revised job numbers or fake ones or are they moving the real recalculated ones from last month back on the books this month so they can re-calibrate all the 2011 incorrect numbers by the end of Q3?

You know if you can't count, it's highly unlikely that you can fix any economy.

I wonder what our friends @ CNBC think? Calling Larry Kudlow!! HELP!

Thursday August 4th Post: "Jobs Report Could Crush Markets" finance.yahoo.com · via Todd M. Schoenberger

"NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A lackluster reading on the government s monthly jobs report Friday could deal another blow to already weakening global markets...."

Best regards,
TishTrek

Royal Bank of Scotland: Have You Got Talent?

2011-08-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

My high school history teacher, the revered and much loved Mr. Oxenford @ Pt. Pleasant Beach High School in New Jersey taught me the following: "If you don't study & assess history, history will be destined to repeat itself..."

Who among us is interested in a REPEAT of the Economic Disaster we are all trying to survive as I write? The answer should be: NO ONE, (okay some of you out there actually benefit out there when the rest of the world is down, but you are the exception!)

24 yrs of recruiting for multinational corporations has taught me that acquiring high caliber talent in business & government is the only 'competitive advantage' that will stop the current economic bloodbath.

The incredible Royal Bank of Scotland WILL rebound if it can just hire NEW decision-makers who live leader bahaviors and the tenets of credit risk, risk management and operational risk.

In-house talent that could scale to the challenges of our time was the only single solution that might have stopped the disastrous aquisition of ABN Amro from being assessed incorrectly and transacted. Go RBS!

LinkedIn Activity Update: "RBS to shed 2,000 investment bank jobs - FT.com ft.com · via John Reynolds

Royal Bank of Scotland plans to shed as many as 2,000 employees from its investment banking arm as it completes the integration of ABN Amro, the disastrous Dutch acquisition that pushed RBS to the brink of collapse."

Best regards,
TishTrek
732-259-2780 - Cell

Killing You & Your Job 'Softly' @ Goldman Sachs!

2011-08-04T05:53:00.001-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Great news from Goldman Sachs! Julie Steinberg @ http://www.fins.com/Finance reported in her on-line article, "At Goldman, You're Fired Gently" that Goldman's laid off associates are getting a three month GRACE PERIOD to clean out their cubes and offices!

That's excellent! - a little respect for those who didn't execute the steps that ruined our economy is in order. Being nice to laid off employees is the least Goldman can do after their giant taxpayer bailout and all those counterparty contracts forced AIG to pay 100% on the dollar for Goldman's intentional risky bets/losses during the subprime/CDO crisis that GS executives helped create.

This return to a 'gentle shove' is right in line with how Goldman elbowed business integrity out the door while 'gently shoving' its way to the Fed's Lending window to borrow an additional $30 billion without Congress's, the public's, or even shareholders' knowledge. They do it because they can.

This was shared on LinkedIn on August 3rd: Goldman Sachs Gives Fired Employees a Gentle Shove Out the Door. The firm gives employees a grace period in which... www.fins.com/Finance

Best regards,
TishTrek

2-1: Debt Ceiling Deal Worse for ALL

2011-08-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Mom - The children of the Greatest Generation trashed the country their parents left them, (See below). Some think you're lucky because you're not here to see it. Miss you...

USA TODAY SURVEY, August 3rd, 2011 - Here's one you can take to the BANK! 8/4/11 quote from writer Susan Page: "The hard-won, last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceidling and cut the deficit gets low ratings from Americans, who by more than 2-1 predict it will make the nation's fragile economy worse rather than better."

I agree. The Debt Deal & Dodd-Frank Legislation will not eliminate long-term challenges for investors, corporations or the country in general. Whichever dueling economist we want to listen to, we can count on this: US companies have already prepared for a possible downgrade of the nation's credit rating; they've been preparing for weaker growth and have already been executing action plans tied to that expectation; many are looking abroad in emerging markets for growth where there's market share to gain AND where regulatory & corp taxes rates don't put "a deleterious drag on capital formation" & profits, (as reported by Goldman Sachs, HSBC (just this week - 30K job cuts and a move to emerging markets...), JPMC, the list goes on...)

This blog post was inspired by this: DealBook: Is Dodd-Frank Overdue or Overkill? Senate Hears Dueling... dealbook.nytimes.com · via John Reynolds on LinkedIn

Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist, contends Dodd-Frank does not go far enough. Eugene A. Ludwig, a former top financial regulator, warns of “a deleterious drag on capital formation."

Best regards,
TishTrek

Politics Before Profits: BofA & Lehman

2011-08-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Mom - Look what they've done to my great company and my job:

At the height of 2008 Credit Crisis, Bank of America was forced to become 'The Rescue Plan' for Countrywide Mortgage leaving CEO Angelo Mozilo laughing while tanning.

Gov't officials used the crisis as an opportunity to eliminate another Citi & Goldman competitor, the same way they selectively decided not to bail out the Lehman Family's legacy to America - Lehman Brothers.

A clueless Congress made Ken Lewis a villian while the men who did this to our country hid in the Treasury Dept & the Fed, (Summers, Rubin, Geithner). Pres Clinton now admits that Summers gave him really bad advice regarding the risk of derivatives on our markets & the economy. You think?

Best regards,
TishTrek

Failing Upwards: Lawrence Summers Goes to Harvard

2011-07-29T05:14:00.001-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Don't let talking points rewrite the world's financial history!

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summer's called the Winklesvoss Twins (those Facebook brats) A*&%% holes. Look who's talking considering Mr. Summers's lead role during the Clinton Presidency in the deregulation of derivatives contracts.

From Wikipedia on Google: "May 7, 1998, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Concept Release soliciting input from regulators, academics, and practitioners to determine "how best to maintain adequate regulatory safeguards without impairing the ability of the OTC (Over-the-counter) derivatives market to grow and the ability of U.S. entities to remain competitive in the global financial marketplace." [21]

On July 30, 1998, then-Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Summers testified before congress that "the parties to these kinds of contract are largely LARGELY SOPHISTICATED financial institutions that would appear to be EMINENTLY CAPABLE of protecting themselves from fraud and counterparty insolvencies." Summers, like Greenspan and Rubin who also opposed the concept release, offered no proof that the contracts would not be misused by financial institutions. Instead, Summers stated that "to date there has been no clear evidence of a need for additional regulation of the institutional OTC derivatives market, and we would submit that proponents of such regulation must bear the burden of demonstrating that need." [22]

This argument suggests that the default position in the disagreement was that Summers, Greenspan, and Rubin were right, and that anyone (i.e., Brooksley Born) who disagreed with them bore the burden of proving their position. In fact, subsequent events have proven that Summers, Rubin, and Greenspan misjudged the dangers posed by derivatives. contracts.
In 1999 Summers endorsed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which removed the separation between investment and commercial banks, saying "With this bill, the American financial system takes a major step forward towards the 21st Century."[23]

The lack of regulation that allowed A.I.G. to sell hundreds of billions of dollars in credit default swaps on mortgage-backed securities was a direct result of efforts by the Treasury (first under Rubin and then under Summers), the Federal Reserve (under Greenspan), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (under Arthur Levitt) to deregulate the derivatives markets. The first response to the CFTC Concept Release was issued as a joint statement from Rubin, Greenspan, and Levitt who stated that they "have grave concerns about this action and its possible consequences." [24] Levitt and Greenspan have admitted that their views on this issue were mistaken. Levitt told WGBH in Boston that "I could have done much better. I could have made a difference." Greenspan told a congressional hearing that "I found a flaw ... in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works." [25] [26] When George Stephanopoulos asked Summers about the financial crisis in an ABC interview on March 15, 2009, Summers replied that "there are a lot of terrible things that have happened in the last eighteen months, but what's happened at A.I.G. ... the way it was not regulated, the way no one was watching ... is outrageous."

At the 2005 Federal Reserve conference in Jackson Hole, Raghuram Rajan presented a paper called "Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?" Rajan pointed to a number of potential problems with the financial developments of the past thirty years. [27] The problems that Rajan considers include skewed incentives of managers, herding behavior among traders, investment bankers, and hedge fund operators who suffer withdrawals if they under-perform the market. Rajan also discusses (on pp. 337–40) the problems associated with firms that "goose up returns" by taking risky positions that yield a "positive carry." This is how the infamous Joseph J. Cassano impressed his superiors at A.I.G. for a decade while sowing the destruction of the firm. [28] During the boom years of the housing market, the credit default swap contracts that A.I.G. Financial Products sold provided a stream of premium payments to the company with no expense stream. That's an example of what Rajan calls "goosing up returns" with latent risk. Rajan asks (on page 388) "If firms today implicitly are selling various kinds of default insurance to goose up returns, what happens if catastrophe strikes?" This is a fair question.

The flip side of the trade is equally problematic. Gregory Zuckerman in his book The Greatest Trade Ever about John Paulson's hedge fund recounts the difficulties that Paulson and others had holding on to their bets against the housing market. Even Paulson, whose timing couldn't have been better, spent a great deal of his time persuading investors to persist with the bet against the market. But month after month, millions of dollars were paid out on the credit default swap premia. The investors saw money spent and gone that could have been used to buy assets with rising prices, or at least held safely with a positive yield. As Rajan puts it (p. 338), "it takes a very brave investment manager with infinitely patient investors to fight the trend, even if the trend is a deviation from fundamental value."

Justin Lahart, writing in the Wall Street Journal in January 2009 about the response to Rajan's paper at the conference recounts that "former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, famous among economists for his blistering attacks, told the audience he found 'the basic, slightly lead-eyed premise of [Mr. Rajan's] paper to be largely misguided.'"[29]

In a recent paper (on pages 285–87), Steven Gjerstad and Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith describe more fully (1) the contribution of derivatives to the flow of mortgage funds that supported the housing bubble, (2) the concerns that Brooksley Born had raised about the dangers inherent in these contracts, (3) Summers's contribution to their deregulation, and (4) how these contracts precipitated the collapse of the financial system in 2007 and 2008. [30]

On April 18, 2010, in an interview on ABC's “This Week” program, Clinton said Summers was wrong in the advice he gave him not to regulate derivatives.[31]"

If we don't work to know our history, then history will surely repeat itself!

Tip for the DAY: If you're unemployed, force yourself to read @ least two hours a day!

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

Unemployment: Triple Dipping our way to 50% Benefits Who?

2011-07-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG:

If you don't have a job, you really need to stop playing WOW and pay attention! If you don't research 'why' so many Americans are standing on the unemployment line, we'll never solve the root causes for this disaster... Here's another letter to the Wall Street Journal that was not published:

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 4:29 PM
Subject: Gold(man's) Finger: Russian Roulette & Jobs Double-Dip

Dear Editor,

Right after watching a recent Warren Buffet NPR interview on-line, I read your editorial "The Jobs Double-Dip" (July 9th). Obviously, the job numbers can't be "lagging indicators" if the U.S. is playing 'Russian Roulette' with the Debt Ceiling and 'Hide-&-Seek' with jobs.

Our nation has been under attack from inside the White House for over twenty years because leveling 'some' global economic playing field by undermining the U.S.'s financial health is a strategy, not an accidental down-turn. It's time to burst through these smoke-screens, job numbers and talking points to revive the toxic economic wasteland Mr. Buffet and Goldman Sachs helped create.

A 20-year corporate strategy executed by Goldman Sachs to make sure their executives had a systemic presence and financial decision authority in every facet of our government did the most damage to our country because it served to bolster the interests of Goldman's ultra high net worth customers and put the debts and failures of their company and counter-parties on the backs of our children and grandkids.

It's time for them to stop intentionally creating one ultra-urgent and contrived financial crisis after another which only serves to justify government action plans insisted on and executed by all the 'Goldman Guys' - Treasury & Fed Heads Rubin, Geithner et al - the nation's financial advisors to three U.S. Presidents - Clinton, Bush & Obama.

Throw Wall Street out of the 'People's House' or be prepared for a demoralizing 'Job Triple-Dip' like no other.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

Debt Ceiling Scare = Zero Leadership

2011-07-29T04:39:00.001-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!!

Elected officials yell JOB #'s & CORPORATE JETS in crowded theaters to divert our attention away from the fact that our great country is fighting an economic tsunami compliments of ZERO leadership in Washington DC; a "You Make It, We Take It" assault on citizens wallets; AND an anti-U.S. biz agenda complete with legislation & obscene corp tax rates. Voters understand what's happening... We get it, so vile attacks on our nation's corporate jet owners & the PR wars using unreliable Job Claims Data (always 'revised' per CNBC) won't work anymore. Voters have finally stripped aircraft and contrived Job Data of all its clout & power in our national debate. - Tish

"CNBC Mention about Claims Data - what do you think??" Landcolttrading.typepad.com

Curious--how are you feeling about first time jobless claims breaking below 400k, or do you really give a damn?! Probably the latter. But, someone has to talk about it. Go to Landcolt Trading for the article from July 28th on CNBC.com with quotes from...

Best regards,
TishTrek

9/11 10th Anniversary Question: How could you?

2011-07-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 is almost upon us. I have a couple burning questions that need answers. Sometimes these questions keep me up at night...

The Elected politicians & business people who created & drove the Mortgage Bubble/ CDO/ Subprime/ Counterparty scheme(s) for personal gain ramped up these clandestine activities before, DURING & AFTER 9/11.

Who follows through with such an agenda after fellow citizens are murdered in the name of freedom next door to their offices?

How come you didn't stop as surviving colleagues in mourning paralyzed with fear & protected by National Guardsmen bravely took sooty Wall Street - covered in WTC debris - by storm so their country could rebound quickly from the 'enormity of horror' they witnessed 1st hand?

Without business integrity, you are nothing. My trek to find leaders who operate with Leader Behaviors will never end... Not ever.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

'Aftershock' & Our Man-Made Economic Tsunami!

2011-07-26T06:32:00.001-07:00

Welcome To TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Oh boy... Maybe it's time to send all the elected and appointed officials in Washington DC home. The rancorous U.S. Debt Ceiling talks amount to a contrived media frenzie designed to divert the public's attention away from our man-made Economic Tsunami!! -Tish

HELP WANTED: 30-something LEADERS with the guts, strength & skills to take charge of their own future!!

It's NOT light reading for the beach, but I challenge everyone to read 'Aftershock' by authors Robert & David Wiedemer & Cindy Spitzer. "Aftershock makes a compelling argument for a chilling conclusion. Their track record demands our attention." —Sam Stovall, Chief Investment Strategist, Standard & Poor's. "Their scenario is dark, and their strategies bold and unconventional. But after being on target the last time they went against the grain, the Wiedemers merit being heard out." —The AP.

HELP WANTED: 30-something LEADERS with the guts, strength & skills to take charge of their own future!! The citizens of the United States of America need you!!

Best regards,
TishTrek

Unemployed? Go to: www.usajobs.gov!!!

2011-07-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome To TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!!

Tip for the unemployed both experienced professionals AND college graduates! Go to www.usajobs.gov - This is a serious college graduate alert! The Department of Defense, Veteran's Administration, Dept of Navy and the list goes on...are looking for top notch candidates NOW!! Comprehensive benefits packages include - in part - paid vacation, sick leave, holidays and a 401K-type retirement plan. The 'acquisition of knowledge' is a lifetime commitment & requirement for civilians inside the government, so you'll enjoy unprecedented & challenging higher education & technical certification programs throughout your career. Good luck!

Position for an ACCOUNTANT with the U.S. Navy @ Lakehurst, New Jersey! More where this one came from @ www.usajobs.com! Get the word out! You and your friends will not see the thousands of civilian government job opportunities available on the popular Internet Job Boards such as Monster, Careerbuilder, Sixfigures.com, etc....

Job Title: Accountant
Department: Department Of The Navy
Agency: Naval Education and Training Command
Job Announcement Number: SE1-0510-07-M3502569-DE

SALARY RANGE: $43,738.00 - $56,863.00 /year

OPEN PERIOD: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 to Friday, July 15, 2011

SERIES & GRADE: GS-0510-07

POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time Career/Career Conditional

PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 11

DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy - Lakehurst, NJ

WHO MAY BE CONSIDERED: United States Citizens

JOB SUMMARY:
As a civilian Department of the Navy employee, you won't just have a job; you'll make important contributions by supporting your Navy and Marine Corps military colleagues and serving our Nation. Our salaries are competitive with those of other civilian employers and our exceptional benefits programs are focused on your well-being both on and off the job, now and in the future. Consider the possibilities and find your Department of the Navy civilian career today!

Discover a civilian career with the U.S. Department of the Navy that is filled with possibilities and be a part of something that makes a difference for you, the country, and the world. Great Benefits Package: paid vacation, sick days, holidays, health and life insurance, and an excellent retirement package

The Department of the Navy (DON) is more than ships, aircraft, and sailors; it is over 181,000 civilian employees at Navy and Marine Corps commands, bases, stations and facilities throughout the U.S. and around the world.

It requires a highly trained, educated and skilled workforce to support today's sophisticated Navy and Marine Corps ships, aircraft, weapon systems and computer systems. Over 41,000 professionals perform "cradle to grave" management of highly technical systems, equipment, facilities, supplies and services.

Individuals will be placed in the Financial Management Career Program (FCMP). The FCMP is a structured management-training program including formal education, diverse rotational assignments, and extensive on-the-job training. These positions are located throughout the U.S.

The position is a promotion potential to GS-11. If selected below the full performance level, incumbent may be non-competitively promoted to the next higher grade level after meeting all regulatory requirements, and upon the recommendation of management. Promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed.

WHO MAY APPLY: U.S. Citizens and Nationals (those who owe their Allegiances to the United States).

KEY REQUIREMENTS:
You must be a US Citizen or National.
Suitable for Federal Employment
Additional vacancies may be filled by this announcement.
College transcripts must be submitted as proof of claimed education.

Duties
Additional Duty Location Info:

1 vacancy - Lakehurst, NJ

Examining information to identify and resolve financial and accounting problems to reconcile accounts or other financial records.
Reviewing reports, documents, records, data, or other material to verify completeness, correctness, consistency, compliance or authenticity.
Identifying accounting errors and recommending action to adjust.
Examining accounting documents and summary records to determine proper application of regulatory requirements, standards or procedures.
Processing, recording, and analyzing financial transactions or information using computer systems or applications.
Communicating accounting and financial matters to customers.

Qualifications and Evaluations

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:
In order to qualify for this position, your resume must provide sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge skills and abilities to perform the duties of the specific position for which you are being considered. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to submit a thorough resume that directly relates to this position.

Basic Requirements-

A. Degree: accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit in business law. (The term "accounting" means "accounting and/or auditing" in this standard. Similarly, "accountant" should be interpreted, generally, as "accountant and/or auditor.") OR

B. Combination of education and experience -- at least 4 years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge. The applicant's background must also include one of the following:

1. Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law;

2. A certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; or

Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester-hour requirement of paragraph A, provided that (a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full-performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering or financial institution examining; (b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in paragraph A; and (c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant's education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements.

In order to qualify for this position, your resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-05 grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience is defined as operating accounting systems to analyze and record revenues, costs, financial liabilities, and assets; interpreting accounting data, records and reports concerning financial management matters, and assessing accounting processes and systems. Or

A degree that meets the requirements through one of the following methods, no more than 10% of academic credit can be based on pass/fail or similar non-traditional grading systems.

· 2.95 GPA overall or higher in last 2 years (= or less than 10% Pass/Fail)
· 3.45 GPA or higher in major or last 2 years in major (=or less than 10% Pass/Fail)
· Upper 1/3 ranking in graduating class (you must submit proof with your application)
· National Scholastic Honor Society. Membership in a freshman honor society cannot be used to meet the requirements of this provision. (you must submit proof with your application)

To qualify for this position, your resume must show sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the position for which you are being considered. Qualifying experience may be obtained in the private or public sectors.

NOTE: APPLICANTS QUALIFYING BASED ON EDUCATION OR A COMBINATION OF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE MUST SUBMIT A COMPLETE COPY OF THEIR TRANSCRIPTS. DEGREE AUDITS ARE NOT AN ACCEPTABLE SUBSTITUE FOR OFFICAL/UNOFFICAL TRANSCRIPTS. You may submit your transcripts through the "Application Manager" or by fax. This is the only method in which transcripts can be submitted. Failure to provide this information may result in an ineligible rating. (Faxing instructions may be found under the "How to Apply" section.) All qualification requirements, including completion of college degrees, must be met at the time of application. See OPM's General Policies for information on crediting education.

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the qualification requirements if the applicant can provide documentation indicating that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is the responsibility of the applicant to provide such evidence when applying for further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html

As part of the application process, applicants will be required to complete and submit an occupational questionnaire. To preview this questionnaire and determine if your experience matches the skills required for this position, click the following link: Online Questionnaire

Please read and follow the How to Apply section of this announcement to submit your application.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

A Secret security clearance is a requirement of this position. Failure to obtain and maintain the required level of clearance may result in the withdrawal of a position offer or removal. If you possess a security clearance, please indicate the level and termination date in your resume.

Selectee may be required to successfully complete a probationary period. Applicants will be required to sign a mobility agreement upon acceptance of position. Failure to agree to mobility agreement will result in revocation of a position offer.

A 40 hour work week is typical for this position.

A tentative offer of employment will be rescinded if the selectee fails to meet the pre-employment requirements, including failure to report to any of the scheduled appointments.

Important Notes: Application procedures are specific to this vacancy announcement. Please read all the instructions carefully. Failure to follow the instructions may result in your not being considered for this position.

HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED:

When the application process is complete, your application will be reviewed to determine if you meet the hiring eligibility and qualification requirements listed in this announcement. You will be rated based on the information provided in your resume and responses to the questionnaire, along with your supporting documentation to determine your level of knowledge, skill and ability related to the job requirements.

Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities in the following areas.

Knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles and standards.
Knowledge of mathematical techniques to review financial data and solve problems.
Skill in the use of basic office computer software programs.
Ability to effectively communicate both orally and in writing.
You will be rated under Category Rating procedures based on the extent to which your experience meets the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities for the position and rated as shown below. Additional points are not added for veterans' preference; however, preference is still applied. Applicants eligible for veteran's preference will receive selection priority over non-veterans. If you meet the qualification requirements, your application will be placed in one of three categories:

Best Qualified- Candidates in this category possess exceptional skills and experience to exceed will above the minimum requirements for announced position.

Highly Qualified- Candidates in this category possess good skills and experience above the minimum requirements for announced position.

Qualified - Candidates in this category meet the minimum experience requirements for announced position.

If, after reviewing your resume and supporting documentation, a determination is made that you inflated your qualifications and/or experience your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities or you may be found ineligible/not qualified.

Benefits and Other Info

BENEFITS:
Department of the Navy offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, paid vacation, sick leave, holidays and a 401K-type retirement plan.

OTHER INFORMATION:
This Position is subject to Department of Defense Priority Placement Program.

Military Spouse Preference (MSP): If you are the spouse of an active duty military member, then you may be eligible for MSP. To be eligible you: (1) must have been married to your military sponsor prior to reporting to the new duty assignment; and, (2) must have accompanied your military sponsor on a Permanent Change in Station (PCS) move; and, (3) the position for which you are applying must be within the commuting area of your military sponsor's new permanent duty station.

MSP applies if you are ranked among the "best qualified" for this vacancy, and the list established from this announcement is used to fill the vacancy. To be rated "best qualified", MSP applicants must attain an eligibility rating on this examination of 80 or higher, not including points for veteran's preference. MSP does not apply, however, when preference would violate statutes or regulations on veteran's preference or nepotism. You must request MSP by submitting a copy of your military sponsor's PCS orders.

Veterans Information : http://www.usajobs.gov/vi If you are claiming a 5-point preference you must submit a copy of your DD-214, which includes character of service or a Statement of Service/Proof of Service, which includes service dates, nature of separation and character of service. You can access to your DD-214 here.

If you are claiming a 10-point preference you must submit a copy of your DD-214, which includes character of service, your Disability Letter indicating the percentage of your disability and the SF-15 (Application for 10-point preference), which can be obtained here .

NOTE : You will not receive veteran's preference for this announcement if you fail to provide any of the documents mentioned above.

Federal annuitant information: https://chart.donhr.navy.mil/info/FedCivAnnuitants.pdf

Important information about employment of annuitants.

ICTAP Applicants: ICTAP applicants must be well qualified for the position to receive consideration for special priority selection and must attain an eligibility rating on this examination of 85 or higher, not including points for veteran's preference. http://www.public.navy.mil/donhr/Employment/CivJobOpps/Documents/ICTAP_Statement.pdf

Selectee is required to participate in the Department of Defense direct deposit of pay program.

Males born after December 31, 1959 will be required to certify that they have registered with the Selective Service System. If you fail to do so, you will be required to certify that you did not knowingly and willfully fail to register. This requirement must be met before you can be appointed to this position.

How To Apply

HOW TO APPLY:
To begin the process, click the Apply Online button to create an account or log in to your existing USAJOBS account. Follow the prompts to complete the occupational questionnaire. Please ensure you click the Submit My Answers button at the end of the process.

Note: To check the status of your application or return to a previous or incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account, select Application Status, and click on the More Information link under the application status for this position.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:
The following documents are required (copies are sufficient):

Resume showing relevant experience (cover letter optional)
Completed assessment questionnaire (part of the online application)
SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action (for current or former Federal employees). DOD employees can access their SF-50 at: My Biz
ICTAP documentation (if claiming ICTAP preference)
Veterans' Preference Documentation, if applicable (DD-214 or statement of service, VA letter, SF-15 (see Other Information section for further details)
Military Sponsor's PCS Orders (if claiming military spouse preference-see Other Information section for further details)
Transcripts or Unofficial Transcripts (if qualifying based on education or a combination of education and experience). If selected, an official/sealed transcript may be required prior to appointment.
Reemployed Annuitants must submit an SF-50 documenting their retirement.
Your complete application must be submitted by 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Friday, July 15, 2011. Please follow all instructions carefully as missing application information will not be requested.

After you upload your documents using Application Manager, please wait one hour to ensure they have cleared the virus scan. You can verify that your uploaded documents are attached to your application by checking the Details tab of your Application Manager account https://applicationmanager.gov for this vacancy announcement. Your documents will display under the Details tab in the Document area.

If you cannot apply online:

1. Click the following link to view and print the occupational questionnaire View Occupational Questionnaire

2. Print this 1203FX form to provide your response to the occupational questionnaire http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/opm1203fx.pdf

3. Use the following Vacancy ID: 502569

4. Fax the completed 1203FX form along with any required documents to 1-478-757-3144. Your 1203FX will serve as a cover page for your fax transmission.

Do not overstate or understate your level of experience and demonstrated capability. You should be aware that your ratings are subject to evaluation and verification based on the resume, as well as through verification of references as appropriate. Deliberate attempts to falsify information may be grounds for not selecting you or for dismissing you from the position following acceptance.

AGENCY CONTACT INFO:
DON Employment Info Center EIC
Phone: (800)378-4559
Email: CHART@NAVY.MIL
Agency Information:
68045 FIN MGT TNEPROG
Naval Financial Mgmt Career Ctr
Pensacola, FL 32501

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT:
Once the online questionnaire is received you will receive an acknowledgement email that your submission was successful. Best qualified applicants will be referred to the hiring manager. If your name is referred to the hiring official, you may be contacted directly by that office for a possible interview.

Stay informed of changes to your application status by signing up for automatic email alerts at https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/NotificationSettings.aspx.

Real Jobs for Real People: Act Now!

2011-07-14T15:33:00.001-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...

#1) Job Alert for my former colleagues with expertise in Quantitiative Analytics/ Statistical Modeling - Jim Geiger is the man to know. Good luck! Hiring a Director-Ph.D Modeler-Insurance Analytics in New York, NY bull.hn · via Jim Geiger

Insurance company seeks Director, Quantitative Analytics/Statistical Modeling. The Director is responsible for leading a team of technical ...

#2) Big Pharma Opportunity. Act now! What type of mark will you make? | careers.jnj.com careers.jnj.com · via Robyn Suter

#3) Keep the jobs rolling Rob! Now Hiring: Interaction Designer - User Experience in Chicago, IL bull.hn · via Robert Woods

We’re seeking an Interaction Designer (IxD) to join our dynamic team. As an Interaction Designer, you will play a key role in our Agile product ...

#4) Another job option. Alert your friends and former colleagues! Greg Saukulak ( 6000+ gsaukulak@abacusnyc.com) linkedin.com

#5) Senior Internal Auditor job at The Abacus Group - Northern, NJ http://bit.ly/qzbyax #Indeed #jobs

For the rest of the month, I will share them as I see them: Watch for real time jobs former colleagues or fellow professionals are actually working to fill TODAY!!

Good Luck!

Best regards,
TishTrek

JOB TRIPLE-DIP: A Q4 Bloodbath??

2011-07-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Wake up America!! We can't let unemployment move from 9.2% to 19.2% just the way they planned. A Q4 jobs bloodbath is on the way...

How can anyone sit idle on some couch collecting unemployment benefits when there are leaders taking steps and actions to destroy our country?

Apathy is not an option... See my letter to the editors @ The Wall Street Journal below.

-TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 4:29 PM
Subject: Gold(man's) Finger: Russian Roulette & Jobs Double-Dip

Dear Editor,

Right after watching a recent Warren Buffet NPR interview on-line, I read your editorial "The Jobs Double-Dip" (July 9th). Obviously, the job numbers can't be "lagging indicators" if the U.S. is playing 'Russian Roulette' with the Debt Ceiling and 'Hide-&-Seek' with jobs.

Our nation has been under attack from inside the White House for over twenty years because leveling 'some' global economic playing field by undermining the U.S.'s financial health is a strategy, not an accidental down-turn. It's time to burst through these smoke-screens, job numbers and talking points to revive the toxic economic wasteland Mr. Buffet and Goldman Sachs helped create.

A 20-year corporate strategy executed by Goldman Sachs to make sure their executives had a systemic presence and financial decision authority in every facet of our government did the most damage to our country because it served to bolster the interests of Goldman's ultra high net worth customers and put the debts and failures of their company and counter-parties on the backs of our children and grandkids.

It's time for them to stop intentionally creating one ultra-urgent and contrived financial crisis after another which only serves to justify government action plans insisted on and executed by all the 'Goldman Guys' - Treasury & Fed Heads Rubin, Geithner et al - the nation's financial advisors to three U.S. Presidents - Clinton, Bush & Obama.

Throw Wall Street out of the 'People's House' or be prepared for a demoralizing 'Job Triple-Dip' like no other.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell

Elizabeth Edwards: Screaming from the grave?!

2011-06-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

I got a hit in today's New York Post! I wrote a letter to the editor after reading, "Edwards Brushed Off Potential Jail Plea Deal," on June 6.

My letter was posted last night and made the fine print in the newspaper today.

Read how I felt when John Edwards, Democratic vice presidential nominee (2004) and wannabe presidential candidate (2008), showed up at a North Carolina courthouse with his oldest daughter Cate to face charges that he paid for his mistress - Rielle Hunter - with campaign cash.

My letter is at the bottom... You'll not that I now believe that you can kill someone after they're dead! - TishTrek

A sinful prez wannabe & the pain he caused
Last Updated: 3:11 AM, June 9, 2011

Posted on New York Post Website @ 10:20 PM, June 8, 2011

With sincerity coating every lying syllable, this shyster claimed that almost $1 million of campaign contributions were back-doored to his mistress in a perfectly legal manner.

If Edwards were smart, he would have pled ignorance of the complicated campaign-finance law, copped a plea, paid a fine and got on with his slimy life.

John Edwards
Paul Bloustein

Cincinnati

***

With the indictment of Edwards, we are reminded of the capacity of this man to cause harm to many, especially his wife, Elizabeth, who was terminally ill with cancer and with whom he had four children and shared the death of a son.

Cheaters come in all stripes -- Democrats, Republicans, the powerful and the not-so-powerful.

But while men can be selfish egomaniacs, I have a bigger issue with the women those guys cheat with.

Did Rielle Hunter care at all that she was participating in the destruction of a family?

There are plenty of single men who do not have young families. Why don't these women target these guys and not make it so easy for married fathers to cheat?

Just remember, girls. If they cheat with you, they will cheat on you.

Diane McVey

Scotch Plains, NJ

***

If two-time presidential candidate Edwards was indicted for trying to keep his mistress and their baby hidden during the peak of his 2008 campaign for the White House, shouldn't Arnold Schwarzenegger be indicted also?

Schwarzenegger used his security staff to hide his affairs.

And how about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford?

Edward Drossman

Manhattan

***

Saturday's photo says it all ("Edwards' 'Baby Booty' Rap," June 4).

As far away as New Jersey, we can hear Elizabeth Edwards screaming from the grave as her beautiful daughter Cate was used as a media prop on the steps of the Winston-Salem courthouse by Edwards.

Tish Ferguson

Pt. Pleasant, NJ

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/letters/sinful_prez_wannabe_the_pain_he_NUnY4Ay1Ur3MtZjLbzVoAI#ixzz1OnkvbVfO

Anthony Weiner & the of Women-of-Weinergate

2011-06-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!!

Our personal behavior spills over into every part of our lives, including our jobs...

Below is a response to a Wall Street Journal article written by Erica Orden on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 who promoted the idea that Ms. Huma Abedin-Weiner, the wife of Anthony Weiner, was having her private life tested.

Mrs. Weiner has been Hillary Clinton's aide and powerhouse side-kick for over 15 years and she posed for Vogue, so I shifted the focus to the private lives of the Women-of-Weinergate.

What's your opinion?

Best regards,
TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: erica.orden@wsj.com ; wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 7:30 PM
Subject: Private Lives Tested? No privacy tears for Mrs. Anthony Weiner

Dear Erica,

A Private Life, Tested? (WSJ, 6/8 - Erica Orden). The real private lives being tested are those that belong to the Women-of-Weinergate who have few "supporters in the world of politics, diplomacy and the press."

Where's the WSJ story on Congressman Weiner's on-line pal Lisa Weiss - the blackjack dealer? Ms. Weiss was placed on mandatory leave-of-absence from her job, banned by her employer from speaking to the press again, and 'forced' to write a pathetic letter of apology to Ms. Huma Abedin-Weiner by the really "big bosses" at the Bellagio in Las Vegas?

It's a surprise to no one that Rep Weiner's wife Ms. Abedin is getting advice from 'that' couple - the Clintons; and of course her 'unofficial' spokesman is Clinton lawyer, Robert Barnett. Congressman Weiner didn't send outrageous nude pictures and creepy sext messages to the daughters of the Weiner, Abedin, Clinton, Sinclair or Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) families or to any wives of Congressional colleagues, so why should her husband resign?

Anne Sinclair actually arrived on U.S. soil demanding her husband DSK be returned to France for 'fair' prosecution; and DSK can still expect the equivalent of a ticker-tape parade when he gets home to Paris. In the world of Hillary, Huma and Anne, the women targeted by the alleged behavior of their husbands are all from that lower class/cast system which includes service employees, chambermaids, blackjack dealers, porn stars, college students, singers and interns who have zero worth and no value in the powerful & influencial circles their families live in.

The article works hard to suggest that Congressman Weiner's pregnant wife is really "Ms. Huma Abedin" and not "Mrs. Anthony Weiner." That means that Hillary is not Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton and Anne Sinclair is not really Mrs. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, right? Does eliminating "Mrs" help these supportive wives detach themselves from culpability? Could the logic behind this 'last-name-game' be what traps accomplished women into becoming unsuspecting enablers of abborhent spousal behavior which tests the private lives of everyone who ends up involved in these unnecessary disasters?

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
732-714-8483 - Home

In the name of the Father, Son & of the Almighty Boss?

2011-05-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome To TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG...

This is a true story that speaks to the 'power of genuflection' in the workplace that transformed my thinking in 1991 on why 'leader behaviors' on any team and inside any company need to be assessed and monitored as closely as we monitor the skills, competencies, experiences, credentials and background of the leaders we hire.

All new hires in management positions are accountable for achieving results & revenue goals, but they have an equal responsibility to manage the human resources (the employees) assigned to them in a way that protects and honors the values, ethics, tone, tenor and brand of your company. Respecting the integrity employees have built their lives and reputations on is also a 'critical reponsibility' when managing people who are engaged in delivering solutions that support the mission and goals of your company.

Some watched in horror, but said nothing... as a senior sales executive harrassed, badgered and bullied a male employee for a long time to get him to compromise his core values, military training and integrity to close one $10 million deal with a prestigious client in the Financial Services Industry.

The employee - a West Point Graduate - died in the intensive care unit @ Cooper University Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey so he's not here to know how this story ended... or how many times employees in other corporations, organizations, institutions would be forced to genuflect at the office doors of morally bankrupt leaders for the two decades that would follow his death, (Think Enron, Wa-Mu, Worldcom, Insider Trading, Countrywide, AIGFP, Tyco, Subprime & CDO Madness, Anderson Consulting, Smoke & Mirrors, etc...).

One morning at 3:45 a.m., a Human Resources Director in the Tri-State area received a call at her home that changed her life and tragically changed the lives of many. The New Jersey State Police, a corporate security official and a senior technology executive from her company were on the phone. An employee had been in a horrific car crash and his status was very serious - that was all they could share on this terrible call.

Corporate Security requested permission to break down the door to the file room in the Human Resources department to access emergency contact information which - at the time - was housed in the crash victim's personnel file in her office.

As her two year old daughter slept peacefully down the hall, she gave them permission as she fought back tears while sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed stunned and sick to her stomach. Her husband held her hand as she silently waited for the next instruction.

The employee - fighting for his life - had started his day at a local gym off Exit 4 of the NJ Turnpike at 5:00 a.m., he then executed a 140 mile round-trip commute to attend a technical client engagement @ the World Financial Center in NYC. After work, he went to an Eagles football game with a honorable company official.

He left the game in Philly and caught up with a few additional friends and acquaintances at an evening gathering post; then stopped during the wee hours of the next morning at a famous South Jersey diner where everyone knew his name.

Beyond his radiant smile and great skills, this employee was "that guy" - that shining bright light who lit up a room, an office, a meeting, a conference call and even the local diner when he walked through the door.

It was fortunate that his employee ID badge led the authorities investigating the accident to his place of employment because no one was at his home when his car left the road. His wonderful wife (his high school sweetheart...) was visiting her parents out-of-state with their precious five year old daughter and new infant son. They needed to be found immediately.

When the State Police returned to the phone, they instructed the HR Director to call the people listed on the crash victim's Emergency Contact Card so they could get a family member to the hospital as soon as possible.

When the Director hung up, she called the first number on the list and got word to friends' of the victim (a husband & wife...) who sobbed quietly as they rushed off the phone to deliver the devastating news to his wife.

When the employee left the diner, his car left the roadway & hit a tree during a light rain storm. On impact he was ejected from the car through a window and thrown quite a distance from the vehicle into a wooded area. By all accounts, he was not wearing a seat belt.

As the employee fought to recover from his accident, the HR Director met his wife several times to work through benefit & insurance questions and disability & pay issues. They'd hug at the end of each meeting and she knew the positive energy and prayers of an entire corporate community were with her husband and their family.

The sheer strength of this young man helped him survive in a coma with critical internal injuries & significant trauma to the head for a number of weeks but then his beating heart stopped - this 37 year old intelligent, handsome, athletic, funny, and vibrant young man who was a popular and respected employee was gone.

The Executive Management Team and the HR Director sent out a communication to let employees know he had lost his battle to survive and to announce that the Employee Assistance Program was offering counseling for all who needed to work this through. The news was not unexpected, but hard just the same... Hundreds of people were grief stricken for his wife, their five year old daughter, new born son, but especially for him.

Bus loads of employees and clients attended the services held in upstate NY; those closest to him never really recovered; his aging parents (in their 80's at the time...) would suffer with broken hearts in their final chapters; and knowing that his children had to grow up without their dad left countless people & employees devastated for a long time.

The day of the funeral, the HR Director who had arranged the transportation actually couldn't get on the bus... She stood gazing across some parking lot near Gaither Drive in Mt. Laurel, NJ completely numb and frozen. Few people knew the depth of the employee relations issues this employee unnecessarily suffered in the months before this tragedy; so all she could do was put on a pair of sneakers and jog non-stop for 5 hours until she collapsed grasping the fence surrounding a local recreation center in her hometown of Pt. Pleasant, NJ.

This professional working mom - just some HR Director trying to do her job - sobbed uncontrollably as her fingers grasped the chain-link fence as if she were grabbing her employee by the collar in a final and dramatic effort to save him and to say she was sorry that others had not helped him sooner and that actions inside of one of America's great market leaders had produced such searing pain for him during his journey in their company.

The Director sat alone at the rec center until her husband pulled their car up on the side of the road. He stepped out; said nothing... put his arms around her; and took her home. The job of a Human Resources generalist or director never ends if you were raised to care about people...

The collision of anger and sadness and grief and helplessness was something she could not define. When she added up all the facts to-date, it started to feel like someone had actually killed her struggling employee before that crash.

But thanks to her own mom's advice, she went "placidly amid the noise and haste and remembered what peace there can be in silence" out of respect for all the people so painfully impacted by the loss of this special person in their corporate community.

Months earlier the victim of this car crash told his Director of HR and several other people in his corporate circle that he had been the victim of 'that man' - the senior sales executive who had harassed and bullied him for almost a year. He was pressured weekly and literally offered rewards (some financial...) to compromise his integrity by breaking into the locked computer workstation vendor demo area at a prestigious client site in Florida. The director wasn't really surprised because she was acutely aware of the leader this young man was talking about.

The employee told her that he was afraid and he claimed that it was what he didn't know that kept him from coming to anyone internally for help for more than 9 months. He stated unequivocally that the "pressure was frantically consistent and that the demands always came from the boss he directly reported to who talked incessantly about the importance of the commissions tied to this deal because it would aid his personal struggle of keeping up with rising costs at Syracuse University."

Two years later, as the former HR Director rejoiced over the birth of her second child, she would read in the press that additional leaders inside her former company had helped orchestrate this approach to business. Her recollection and one-on-one conversation with the young man who died led her to believe that he had 'limited' to no knowledge as to how high up in the management-chain these requests were coming from and that he had no clue how many others were involved. Two years earlier, that's exactly what the HR Director reported to the authorities.

He swore to her that employees at the prestigious client site did not directly pass competing vendor's trade secrets to him, but they did assist him in other ways after working hours. With their help (and he named two of them) he gained the access he needed into the confidential locked vendor demo-room several times where he leveraged his military training in information systems & intelligence to copy proprietary and fully patented technology solutions. He had lifted IBM RS/6000 tapes & disks; he copied source code - all this intellectual property that he was told to retrieve was considered trade secrets of the company's leading competitor and rival.

The senior sales executives' goal was to cheat by replicating what was stolen and then to match the competitor's great work to-date. The hope of quickly superseding the competitor's superior solutions by adding some customized features to what was duplicated would hopefully inspire the shift of this $10 million client from the targeted competitor to his team. The plan worked, but at what expense?

In what the employee described as a frenetic pace, the sales exec played on the fact that his subordinate had a new baby on-the-way and he personally authorized a one-of-a-kind (unprecedented by all corporate standards) 'funding arrangement' that amounted to a down payment so this subordinate - who he treated like a worthless minion in his pathetic & contrived business development effort - could gain 'some' financial relief during his struggle to purchase a new home for his young and growing family.

The senior sales exec kept pushing and pressuring him and in the end - he "showed him 'his' ropes" and inspired this employee (and of course there were others...) to participate in what the executive allegedly described as "No big deal. Not one person on the Street will care where we got the code, as long as it works and comes cheap! Not one person in the whole company will care where we got the code, as long as we bring them this $10 million deal!"

In 1991, after the deal closed with the prestigious client, the entire company had an awful day. Due to 'some' of the alleged illegal actions executed @ that Florida client branch and other alleged acts executed at a NJ development center, the company was raided by the Federal Authorities due to a copyright infringement suit filed in US Federal Court by the competitor who charged the firm with stealing their intellectual properties & trade secrets.

The Feds arrived at the company's New Jersey development facilities with guns drawn AND - worse yet - additional federal authorities showed up at the same exact time at 'that' revered client's Florida branch. Frightened employees were ordered off the premises; trucks were backed up to two of the office buildings to remove computers, tapes, disks, mountains of documentation, coded materials, and print pool data, while demanding private sessions with assorted employees for questioning.

Members of the Corporate Legal Department and assorted corporate executives were on their way traveling south on the NJ Turnpike to take over the management of this situation.

This in-house operation set up to copy and steal the hard work of the rival company's employees was a disgrace by every standard the 50 year old company represented. How could this happen? The answer: Easy - without leader behaviors at the forefront of an organization, brands, reputations and success are always at risk.

The evidence seized by the authorities included disks from personal computers that had been located at the development site and in the homes of some employees. Over 140 of the rival's corporate interface programs which included instances of functionally 'identical code' that had been copied and stolen one symbol at a time were also recovered. It was astonishing - all of it.

All of the events tied to this situation were utterly shocking, sickening and unnecessary. It was one of the worst weeks in the history of the entire company and for this division's employee population; many needed employee relations counseling as a result of this one bad experience inflicted on 600 innocent employees because of the actions of a small group of people who didn't have the skills and expertise to battle their corporate rivals by producing superior products and best-in-class solutions. And let's face it - to no fault of their own - many of the employees who felt like they had to 'play this game' reported to at least one leader that was myopically obsessed with securing 'his' commission for a client his team never could have closed or won without cheating.

Companies invest a lot of money in new hires, so make no mistake (and I've repeated this theme consistently in my blog) 'competitive advantage' starts with finding people who mirror the high standards, values and ethics of the companies they are accountable to.

What the deceased employee appropriately feared was that he was up against a giant systemic way of doing this business being orchestrated by corporate leaders with power over him and his family financially; and who would have run him out of the company or town had he not complied with their demands. I'm pleased to report that the company did initiate and offer employees a nationwide 1-800 Ethics Hot Line after this event, but it was too late for this employee. He was already dead at the age 37.

TishTrek - THIS BLOG - is on its second year, so it's no secret that “I'm one of those 'recruiters' and a 'voter' and a 'mom' and a 'spouse' that believes you can't be one kind of a man or woman and another kind of president, governor, IMF head, sales executive, CEO, leader, employee, parent, spouse or civic leader.”

I know this to be the truth because I've lived it inside every company I've had the privilege to work for. I know this for a fact because on earlier blog posts I've profiled talented professionals & giants (great men and women) in industry who succeeded at creating great companies, powerful organizations, and profitable growth, while always operating with business integrity.

Having said all this - some have argued aggressively that the senior sales exec could not 'force' his employee or any other person for that matter to take actions they weren't willing to execute, but I can only say that many others who worked with this particular executive directly have spent 19 years vehemently arguing otherwise... Many stand with them.

For the record and many people know this: Before his death, the employee admitted that he'd crossed lines that shocked even him; his own actions betrayed the way he was raised and the tenets he lived by. He stated, "That his unbelievable actions would disappoint his aging mother, make his dad furious, and leave his wife in tears worrying how all this nonsense would end for their family."

Over 65 IBM RS/6000 tapes & disks had been taken from the competitor which were duplicated by others working on Information Technology Teams and they were recovered in those raids by the Federal Authorities... How come someone didn't find the 'management courage' to stand up to alert upper management, the prestigious client, or the competing vendor before it was too late? What do you think the answer is?

All the technical experts and many employees who had nothing to do with any of this became suspects in this case and all of the company's products existed under a cloud of suspicion until proven otherwise. The Feds required third-party assessments on all non-RS/6000 programs, such as the DOS/Mondrian-based platforms, additional tools, technologies, and methodologies; other valuable client relationships were ruptured by this man-made mess. The actions of a few powerful leaders damaged an entire business. Sound familiar?

For many employees, there was non-material damage (i.e. "loss of pride" & "low morale") as news spread that their work as a vendor in their chosen field often seen and touted as "a progressive technology company" actually became known as satisfying customer requirements by lifting code from rivals. Who does this to fellow colleagues?

The race was on to settle with the Federal Authorities and their rival to keep the press coverage at a minimum and to ensure that the larger corporate brand would not be damaged too much as result of what had happened here... The company was in many other legitimately successful businesses.

In the end, this lapse in business integrity cost millions of dollars to settle and years of judicial intervention to figure out. Some of the cheated rivals failing lines of business were actually purchased by the defendant. Charges against the prestigious client were dropped as part of this settlement. More competitors and clients came and went... Careers were ruined. Reassigned and new corporate soldiers sold off the business when the public relations timing was right. The chapter would close for the company, but it never closed for the employee's family and others touched by this tragedy...

The press reported that the company "agreed in Federal Court not to copy competitors code going forward and to adopt "clean room" procedures for its subsequent software development." So many people reacted with outrage!

I remember thinking, it didn't dawn on a single leader inside that company to build that leader behavior into their Sales and Account Management Code-of-Conduct manual before getting into 'this' business? Was this really great news after a 2 year federal judicial process that put an entire division through hell and risked ruining the brand name of a great market leader? Did they plan on adding their newly adopted rules on software development to the deceased employee's gravestone?

I was the Director of Human Resources - the HR leader on the Executive Management Committee, the colleague, the admirer of the car crash victims' many talents - and it was my house the NJ State Police and our technical executive called @ 3:45 a.m. the morning of that dreadful accident. It is the nightmare that has never left me, but it taught me that NOTHING is more important to an organization than employees and new hires who operate with leader behaviors and who arrive with and 'live' high caliber values and ethics. I think the recent financial collapse and current recession proves this point beyond a shadow of a doubt once again.

After the federal raid on our facilities, my employee had the 'management courage' to come directly to my office in Mt. Laurel, to my home in Pt. Pleasant, NJ; and we met at diners on Rt. 70 & 73 near Philly. I cautiously escorted him to a number of internal executives who were accoutable for these types of employee relations & legal situations, but when it became clear to him that their #1 focus was to protect corporate interests & brand at all costs, these people became little comfort to this employee. Tormented and shaken by all of it, the gist of our many discussions went like this:

"Oh my God." he whispered.... "What about our new baby and little girl? How will my wife survive this? Will I go to jail? What if the giants in our company who mandated my actions blame 'only' me as their lone fall-guy? What have I done? What the hell have I done? Everyone said it wasn't a big deal." They said, "This is how our business is executed and that no one would care. It was all wrong; I should have quit or walked away, but I had so much going on. What can I do now? Please help me."

Corporate Competitive Advantage starts with hiring high caliber talent with values and ethics; and Competitive Advantage has to be sustained long-term by people who operate consistently with leader behaviors which is defined by the way people operate and act when no one is looking no matter what the goal or challenge, no matter where they are... (think about the senior sales executive in this true story, Joseph Cassano @ AIG Financial Products, Kenneth Lay & Jeffrey Skilling @ Enron, Dennis Kozlowski @ Worldcom, Former Governors Sanders, Spitzer and Schwarznegger and the voters who trusted them to put the interests of their states first, & the now infamous & former IMF Head - DSK). Millions of people relying on the integrity and success of all these leaders... but not one of them had a personal history of operating 'consistently' with the necessary 'leader behaviors' to lead by example and always with business integrity.

This colleague told me and others that stress, sleepless nights and anxiety had been keeping him up because a powerful leader in 'our' company had inspired and/or forced him to compromise the integrity he had built his life on for 36 of his 37 years; and to compromise the 'history of integrity' that helped him get accepted and succeed at one of the great military academies of our time.

As I reflect on the unbelievably sad facts of 20 years ago, I'm completing my promise by letting others know that this employee was already 'dead inside' long before his car hit that tree because he (and others...) had been forced to genuflect in the corporate office of a self-absorbed business leader who thought nothing of harming him and taking everything from him.

When the police answered the emergency call, he was unconscious. He had been up... literally awake for 22 hours straight before he would finish the day that would put him to sleep for eternity.

This cherished son, husband, and father had everything to live for, so today I'd like to honor the memory of my brave corporate friend and his widow, who I think of often, with a Special 20th Anniversary Blessing...

I will never forget the two enchanting children who had to grow up without the dad who loved them. May God Bless your "infant son" who is now a 20-year old young man and your beautiful "little princess" who turns age 26 this year.

Their faces are forever etched in the lives and hearts of many who became better people and leaders in their Dad's name.

In the name of the Father and of the Son... his name was George. - Amen.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

Dr. Phil McGraw's Quote: The Stuff of Champions!

2011-05-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG:

Allow me to 'paraphrase' from Dr. Phil McGraw's quote that I shared on my last blog post. “I'm one of those 'recruiters' & a 'voter' that believes you can't be one kind of a man or woman and another kind of president, governor, IMF head, sales executive, CEO, leader, employee, parent, & spouse.”

One week ago, I wrote about protecting your reputation on Social Networks. I spoke openly and passionately about the importance of employees and employment candidates possessing 'leader behaviors' which in my book includes operating with 'business integrity & values;' having the 'management courage' to speak up no matter what the personal consequences; understanding the value of 'teamwork & collaboration" - (i.e. - If you can believe it, few things in life are only about you!); living the tenets of 'ethical transparency,'and the list goes on... What repeat leader behaviors make your list?

The Media's informative reporting on the sick details related to the alleged actions of former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and California Governor 'Benedict Arnold' Schwarzenegger has inspired a re-assessment and re-inspection of all the self-described & self-absorbed leaders of our time.

For almost 25 years, I've worked for companies who made it their business to reject employment candidate in the hiring process who arrived with great skills and experiences, but whose past performance history lacked consistent 'leader behaviors.'

The leaders in the news this week are high profile cases of two iconic men in their chosen fields with past performance histories that included life-long ethical challenges and frankly a lack of respect for all the women in their lives and the world over. Few people are 'actually' surprised by either story.

In former Governor Schwarzenegger's case, who chose to live a double-life which lacked transparency, trust, respect for others (including his own child who he did not recognize publicly for 13 years)... It's all sad, but everyone saw this train wreck coming because we've watched his behavior in public for decades.

In an age, when staying single or divorce are legitimate and popular options, this sad story for the Shriver & Baena families would be no ones' business if the voters of California were not involved. Think about it, he partially failed as Governor because an end result of his 'consistent' unethical behavior obviously kept him from having the ability to focus 100% on the serious challenges he was accountable for in his state.

Unfortunately, on Wall Street, in politics, and inside companies very often powerful, good looking, or rich people who have operated with despicable repeat behaviors since age 11, talk their way through some of the best behavioral assessment experts in the land.

When hiring practices or voting habits fail to mitigate these risks (i.e. fail to weed these people out) for companies, states, voting districts, corporate employee populations, customers and clients, the potential for damage is dangerous and devastating for organizations on so many levels.

Great leaders in companies and communities make a difference everyday because they live the leader behaviors that so many people either weren't born with, never learned or made a choice to never practice them.

If you find yourself challenged in these areas, work harder to change those behaviors that can trip you up in every single part of your life because it's all connected.

Best regards,
TishTrek

IMF Chief & Arnold: One kind of a man & another kind of leader?

2011-05-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG

“I'm one of those that believes you can't be one kind of a man and another kind of president.” - Dr. Phil McGraw.

I've been recruiting for over two decades and I know for a fact that what Dr. Phil believes is spot on CORRECT! Leader Behaviors have to drive every part of your life or you will fail as soon as your own actions have the opportunity to trip you up!

If you don't believe me, just ask the likes of Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, Jim McGreevey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dominque Strauss-Kahn, Mark Sanders, John Edwards, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger... Shall we continue? You can agree with their policies, politics or game, but what kind of leader shames their own children in ways that make the lives their parents created for them unrecognizable?

How many more people with high potential and/or champions with fantastic skills, competencies, credentials and experience will destroy their careers, their families and/or themselves before you and I die? The numbers will always be too big to count or predict or forecast...

I dedicate this blog post to 'all' the children of IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all the other sad sacks mentioned above... When your own children get to understand the definition of 'HERO' in the dictionary, your faces will not be there.

Yes, yes, yes... Your name is on that fat checking account, the cars are cool, perks excellent, the wedding surprises were simply wonderful; and thanks for that education @ Columbia University! But one day, your kids will wake up and realize that they could have achieved all those things on their own with hard work, a good credit score and a neighborhood banker who they could have trusted with their future more than you.

When you die, they'll wonder all the days that they live, how you could live so many lies so freely and for so long? They'll wonder if anything you did for them was real. They'll wonder why you did this to them and their other parent when divorce and/or staying single was always 'a choice' and/or 'option' you had before you hid in the clandestine corridors in towns where they wept when your hidden behaviors became public knowledge; and when the embarrassment and media circus they could never have imagined or been prepared for played out.

"They live like frosty snowmen, so many heroes melt away...
Forgetting the scarves and the corncob pipes that they got on Christmas Day." Author - TishTrek, 1980

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Cc: thomas.varela@dowjones.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 2:59 PM
Subject: Define DIGNITY: Is it that secret underground passage between Tuileries and Elysee?

Dear Editor,

Hand-cuffs off the "indecent repeat behavior" of Dominique Strauss-Kahn? In the article, "French Urges Restraint from Media, Politicians" (WSJ 5/18), President Nicolas Sarkozy demands that we "display a sense of dignity and decency" while reporting on a powerful moneyman with the global nickname "hot rabbit."

Message to President Sarkozy and "that woman" - Mrs. IMF, the American-born Anne Sinclair, who both defended their Chief IMF grabber & groper from Paris: Ms. Sinclair's husband's alleged sick treatment of a New York City female citizen makes you all enablers & supporters of his undignified acts which allegedly date back to 2002, so don't lecture us on 'dignity' & 'decency.'

Since he targets mostly women in that lower cast system that's alive in your mind you're all blinded to the fact that Mr. Strauss-Kahn's lecherous behavior represents exactly what he really thinks of his wife, his daughters and all women - the world over.

The U.S. doesn't care how much money he has or that he pretends to possess the qualities of a leader capable of managing an organization of 187 nations. A courageous hotel chamber maid may have just saved the International Monetary Fund the same week a U.S. housekeeper explained why a former governor of California couldn't stay focused on solutions to save his State.

Men or women lacking ethics & values exist everywhere, but they should not be running worldwide institutions which depend on business integrity, transparency and management courage to survive.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
United States of America
732-259-2780 - Cell

** Subject line reference: Wikipedia - Elysee Palace (which TishTrek visited in the summer of 2007) Republic, Napoléon III charged the architect Joseph-Eugène Lacroix with renovations; meanwhile he moved to the nearby Tuileries Palace, but kept the Élysée as a discreet place to meet his mistresses, moving between the two palaces through a secret underground passage that has since been demolished.[citation needed] Since Lacroix completed his work in 1867, the essential look of the Palais de l'Élysée has remained the same.

IMF Chief's Distain for Wives & Daughters = Dignity?

2011-05-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: thomas.varela@dowjones.com ; gabriele.parussini@dowjones.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 2:20 PM
Subject: RE: French Watchdog Reins In Media Coverage of IMF Chief

Dear Ms. Parussini & Mr. Varela,

Thanks for your informative article on the French Watchdog organization working to protect the 'dignity' of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. My utter disgust and reaction to your story inspired me to write to both of you directly.

Your content included the following statement: the broadcasting authority called on television channels to show the utmost restraint in the broadcasting of images regarding a person involved in criminal proceedings. "The principle of freedom of expression and right to information shouldn't ignore the fact that such images can harm a person's dignity."

Can you explain why this same French Watchdog group wouldn't be equally as concerned about the 'dignity' of the victim of an alleged sexual assault executed by a self-described iconic figure? What's worse in the eyes of 'our' friends at the French Broadcasting Authority? Uncomfortable photos of an arrogant man who was arrested in America or the expensive and massive worldwide public relations assassination attempt directed at an alleged crime victim and funded by the Strauss-Kahn-Sinclair Families, Friends of the IMF and celebrity lawyers like Benjamin Brafman which started yesterday?

I visited the gorgeous country of France in the summer of 2007 and cried as I was overwhelmed by its history, charm and awesome beauty. Don't let one really ugly man rob this kind of memory from so many of us who love & respect your country! Below is my opinion circulating around the world right now on LinkedIn, my Blog and beyond...

Dear Friends,

Who's surprised by the "indecent repeat behavior" of Dominique Strauss-Kahn - a powerful moneyman with the global nickname "hot rabbit?"

Message to "that woman" - Mrs. IMF, the American-born Anne Sinclair, defending her Chief Grabber & Groper from their $4 Million Paris apartment yesterday: Your husband's alleged sick treatment of a New York City female citizen makes you an enabler & supporter of his repeat behavior which allegedly dates back to 2002.

Since he targets mostly women in that lower cast system that's alive in your mind you're blinded to the fact that Dominique's lecherous acts represents exactly what he really thinks of you, his daughters and women the world over.

The U.S. doesn't care how much money you have, or that you work as a prominent French journalist, or that your husband pretends to possess the qualities of a leader capable of managing an organization of 187 nations.

A courageous hotel chamber maid may have just saved the International Monetary Fund! Men or women lacking ethics should not be running worldwide institutions that depend on business integrity, transparency and management courage to survive.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
United States of America
732-259-2780 - Cell

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: IMF stands for what?

2011-05-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

Steven, (Writer/Reporter - New York Times / International Herald Times in France)

Thanks for your article on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but can you explain just how 'expected' news like this jolts a nation? No doubt an expensive & massive worldwide public relations assault directed at the alleged victim of this crime from the Strauss-Kahn-Sinclair Families & that celebrity lawyer Benjamin Brafman starts today.

I visited the gorgeous country of France in the summer of 2007 and cried as I was overwhelmed by its history, charm and awesome beauty. Don't let one ugly man rob this kind of memory from so many of us who love & respect your country! Below is my opinion circulating on LinkedIn:

Dear Editor,

Who's surprised by the "indecent repeat behavior" of Dominique Strauss-Kahn - a powerful moneyman with the global nickname "hot rabbit?"

Message to "that woman" - Mrs. IMF, the American-born Ms. Anne Sinclair, defending her Chief Grabber & Groper from their $4 Million Paris apartment: Your husband's alleged sick treatment of a New York City female citizen makes you an enabler & supporter of his repeat behavior allegedly dating back to 2002 directed at women in that lower cast system that's alive in your mind.

The U.S. doesn't care how much money you have or that you work as some journalist in France or that your husband pretends to possess the qualities of a leader. A courageous chambermaid may have just saved the International Monetary Fund! ZEROS lacking ethics should not be running worldwide institutions that depend on business integrity, transparency and management courage to survive.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
United States of America
732-259-2780 - Cell

Mississippi Maelstroms: "This land is not your land"

2011-05-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Tish Trek - THE JOB BLOG:

"This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me."
By Woody Guthrie - published 1944

With the words of Woody Guthrie's eloquent lyrics published in 1944, who's job is it in 2011 to decide whose land gets destroyed and/or who lives or dies on the land they love along the great and mighty Mississippi River?

My honeymoon was in New Orleans 25 years ago! 40 family members returned there to celebrate New Year's Eve post-Katrina to do our part to contribute to its economic revival. Six of my relatives have graduated from Tulane, LSU & UNO; and my niece was married in the old Gov's Mansion in Baton Rouge. I love both cities!

BUT... where is the raging debate in this country about wiping out your land and my land, along with the homes & farms of fellow citizens in rural areas to save the land in New Orleans & Baton Rouge. Are these the same faces of failed government agencies who harmed all & learned nothing from Hurricane Katrina?

Do we really think it's okay to create man-made tidal waves to increase the diversion of the water from the Mississippi River, flooding the land of our neighbors along connecting rivers & in less populated regions, to ease flood threats to Baton Rouge and my beloved New Orleans?

It reminds me - in an odd way - of all the land destroyed in the name of Eminent Domain which ruined the lives of families across this nation while lining the pockets of developers and politicians everywhere. Unfortunately, the Eminent Domain problem did not adversely impact 'enough citizens" to get the numbers of people a city would need to rise up to bring enough attention to this problem or to stop such outrageous practices... No surprise really considering most battles across the globe since ancient times have been over land rights and dirt, right?

I suppose if it's not your primary home, farm, biz, retirement community or backyard being bull dozed or wiped out with man-made floods, it makes the plan okay or your apathy on such a current event & topic acceptable, right? What if the drowning of your towns, homes or businesses are scheduled for next week?

This blog post is dedicated to the victims of the Timed Engineered Spillage Solutions currently being executed along the Mississippi River. Fifty years of technology advances and all the gov't officials & professionals know how to do - in 1970's fashion - is to destroy the land & lives of innocent neighbors to save others on land up & down-stream... HELP WANTED: NEW Government Leaders & NEW Engineering Leaders at the Army Corps of Engineers - experts in River Management & Urban Planning!

How would you like it if government officials chose to flood your land & home today and it felt like no one noticed or cared "From California to the New York Island." We'll that's exactly what's happening to tens of thousands of people living along the Mississippi this week.

In 1944, even Woody Guthrie worried citizens would face land challenges. Here's one of his verses that didn't make the final cut for that song familiar to many:

"In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?" ***

The 2011 Maelstrom playing out this week sadly re-confirms Woody Guthrie's premonition that 'our' land was never made for you and me.

But could even Guthrie have imagined that any government would release a violent man-made whirlpool using the power of the Mississippi to destroy the lives of humans under 'some' banner of disaster recovery & urban business continuity strategies?

These archaic solutions are directed at fellow citizens in the United States of America who cannot defend themselves or their land anymore. Does our apathy which is to the peril of men, women and children define what we've all become?

"A voice was chanting, As the fog was lifting," my prayers are with all of you impacted by the violence of this agitated state of affairs.

With Respect & Sympathy,
TishTrek

*** Original manuscript republished in Elizabeth Partridge, This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life & Songs of Woody Guthrie (New York: Viking, 2002), 85. ISBN 0670035351 included two verses not used in final cut. I included one in this blog post.

Drive Safe: A Mother's Day Blessing

2011-05-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

To all commuters, vacation travelers and people who drive for a living - I got lucky, so my message is to be safe... You don't have to believe in a higher power to understand what the message is here. Have a great weekend.

HE tried to tell me on the Garden State Parkway that I was too exhausted, so - like an idiot - I opened the window and started singing to the radio.

I fell asleep at the wheel of my car inside the Holland Tunnel on Saturday on my way into NYC to bring my Kate home for Mother's Day.

The steering column cracked because of the strength of the impact as I hit the wall when the car veered out of control.

There is significant damage to the 'insides' of the car but I know HE met me under the Hudson River on Saturday.

I am humbled and grateful...

HE carried me out of that tunnel with barely a scratch.

HE made sure there was no car in the lane next to me as I nodded off to sleep; left the right lane; and crossed over-the-line into the left lane before I hit the north wall several times.

HE made sure that all the cars behind me were at least 4-5 car lengths back so no one would crash into me.

HE made sure that I didn't kill or harm another driver or family.

HE made sure Kate was not in the car with me when this happened.

HE made sure that if this had to happen that there would be a cement bumper lining the entire length of the tunnel (at car wheel level that I never noticed before...) - it knocked the wheels out of alignment and it seared deep burn marks into the rim & metal hub caps, but... it kept the body of the car from being destroyed as HE protected me from serious bodily harm.

HE made sure I wasn't on a cell phone or texting; and HE made sure that I had not had a single glass of wine, so I would be alert & strong enough to take back control once HE woke me to what was happening.

HE made sure my whole left side would ache for a while and HE left me a tad shook up to make absolutely sure that I'd remind others to pull over, get that coffee, ask a friend to drive, or make the trip when you aren't tired, exhausted or still regrouping from two weeks of sinusitis. We all do it... so please stay safe.

My Katie said, "Obviously HE has more work for you to do Mom, Happy Mother's Day."

Best regards,
TishTrek

Facebook-to-Unemployment: Glamour Shots Only!

2011-05-05T04:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

If you or the new college graduate in your home are looking for jobs or want to keep the jobs you already have, it's time to clean up your Social Networking Sites by making sure that all of the data, pictures and self-promotion represents "the very best" of who you really are!

You name the site: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Personal Web pages, Craig's List, Blogs... The Wall Street Journal warned us four years ago that prospective employers had already begun looking at what you write and post on-line as a form of assessment criteria during interviewing, hiring and investigative background processes!

Protecting a company's brand is vital to the survival of every firm, so many executives have now hired or contracted teams of on-line analysts and behavioral specialists who work with 'your' on-line information to make sure the decision to hire you ties closely to the values, goals, ethics and overall mission of their organizations.

Many companies have adopted 'behavioral interviewing techniques' because studies led by top universities including Harvard, Yale, etc., and research companies focused on human behavior in the workplace (i.e. Gartner, Lominger, Inc.) have concluded that human behavior reveals repetitive tendencies that start at very early ages which are highly likely to repeat themselves - albeit in increasingly age-appropriate actions -in the workplace on-and-off throughout our careers and in most other parts of our lives.

Many companies believe that the repeat 'behaviors' of employment candidates really matter. The assessment of a past-performance history of high-end leader behaviors and/or socially unacceptable or outrageous behaviors are being viewed as 'success factors' that need to be assessed in conjunction with the job experience, skills, credentials and competencies individuals possess in their chosen fields.

Since I'm telling you this, it means that those hilarious pictures (your definition not mine...) of you passed out drunk during your 2011 Spring Break or after that bachelorette party will go over like the lead balloons that they are in many hiring circles. Few employers will be impressed or amused.

Clearly behavior matters because the great name and past-performance history of the company you have joined is bigger than you and every new hire combined. We all become a living representative of the brand that made our company great, so as decision-makers stare at pics that would make a mother cry, it's easy to conclude that 'some extension' of the behavior you have no problem blasting out to others with lightening speed on the Internet might repeat itself making you a giant 'potential' liability for their firm.

When that happens, I can promise you that 'hiring risk mitigation' practices designed to put the welfare of the company first will prevail before anyone approves a job offer for you. Don't let this happen to you!

Have fun, but be discreet! If you were not raised to be discreet, then you need to do everything in your power to remind yourself that the fun you had at fraternity parties and on Spring Break needs to retire to your past. The actions you currently engage in with your wonderful high spirited friends during happy hours in NYC or while watching the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox or Snooki's antics during those Jersey Shore episodes and all the innocent shenanigans that follow should never be chronicled for all employers and the world to see if those actions don't mirror the high standards of the company that already hired you or the ones you'd die to work for in the future.

Few people enjoy life or laugh as much as I do, but please...Do not take this advice lightly! Review all of your postings today to make sure that your words and pictures are not a silent killer in your efforts to succeed in your job search and profession.

Finally, if you are currently employed, the most important advice I can offer as it relates to Social Networking is as follows:

I'm proud to be a former Director of Human Resources of ADP's Brokerage Information Services Group (Front-Office Stockbroker Workstation Biz) and I've operated as a Global Recruiting Executive to many market leaders for over two decades, so I'd like to use that platform to point to the Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreements & Codes of Conduct you sign @ your companies when you are hired: Those documents 'directly' apply to what you write and post on Social Networks daily.

Trade secrets have been compromised and members of Social Networks have been reprimanded &/or terminated from many companies for well-meaning posts which accidentally (or intentionally) revealed competitive confidences and proprietary data the corporation never intended for public consumption.

In some cases, the information announced equated to an illegal act, but even the posts that merely counter the branding & marketing efforts of organizations can create issues that put your actions at odds with corporate policies. Don't let this happen to you!

It's your business to understand all the rules dedicated to Investor Protection & Market Integrity. Know your SEC* Rules (*Securities Exchange Commission)to avoid crossing over any line to Insider Trading; and never 'market' or 'promote' financial products outside the mandates dictated by FINRA.***

***FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. We oversee nearly 4,560 brokerage firms, 163,335 branch offices and 631,305 registered securities representatives. Our chief role is to protect investors by maintaining the fairness of the U.S. capital markets.

Today's advice is for you to make absolutely sure that your' on-line habits, content, pictures and ramblings are NOT the silent speed bump in your effort to land the next best job or promotion!

Good luck in your search! But I mean it: Have your fun, but be discreet.

Best regards,
TishTrek

Asbury Park, NJ: We bungled the kids (Part II)

2011-05-02T07:45:00.002-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

This is Blog Post Part II entitled, "Asbury Park, NJ: We bungled the kids" inspired by more bad news from the Asbury Park Press Opinion page.

Please read Blog Post Part I below this one which focuses on the travesty of education in Asbury Park, New Jersey but also offers some straight talk - the first stab at an honest assessment that has to continue before changes in education approaches can be considered for 'our' kids caught in systems of failure.

Isn't it time to reach out to successful business people and educators across the country to start an Information Exchange to get their views on how our society can realistically help these 'at risk' kids? Please join in.

Read the astonishing news from Gannett Newspapers in the Asbury Park Press Opinion Section TODAY, Monday - May 2nd, 2011:

Here are some excerpts that must move people to action:

"The New Jersey State auditor report, which covers the period July 2009 to December 2010, is not so much revelatory as it is a confirmation of what everyone already knows.

The Asbury Park School District continues to have the highest per-pupil expenditures among the 31 districts formerly known as the Abbotts.

More money is being spent on fewer students - with dismal educational results." (you would already be aware of this fact if you read the Asbury Park Press on October 27th, 2010!)

In 2009-2010, the cost per pupil was $26,782 per student per year."

PLEASE NOTE: $26,782 X 13 (K-12 years) = $348,166 to educate one student. For a family with 4 children, the city of Asbury Park will spend $1,392,664 to educate one family.

"Asbury Park's student-to-teacher ratio was 8.7 students to 1 teacher - the second lowest ratio among the Abbott districts.

The district is top-heavy with administrators - about double the state average for K-12 districts."

Now let's repeat the devastating and disturbing facts that speaks to what is supposed to be our generation's #1 focus: Excellence in Education for all of New Jersey's children.

Below are the statistics I highlighted in my Blog last week as they were reported by the NJ Department of Education on 10/27/10 in the Asbury Park Press for the 2008-2009school year:

1) 72% of its students failed the High School Proficiency Assessment in language arts

2) 86.1% failed the math portion

3) After three tries, ONLY 34.9% were able to pass the HSPA

4) Average SAT scores are 325 in math and 330 in verbal

5) Total cost spent per pupil - per year in 2008-2009 = $21,177

6) Total cost spent per pupil - per year in 2009-2010 = $26,782 - reported 5/2/11

From 2009 to 2010, $5,605 per student per year was added to the funding formula, but student performance did not improve. No amount of money will improve any statistic if we are not willing to change the system that is failing these kids.

The failure of so many students inspired someone in authority to demand we move from $21,177 in funding for Asbury Park students during the 2008-2009 school year to $26,782 per student in 2009-2010; and leaders all over the State of NJ responsible for these students approved this increase - this losing solution.

When companies fail, they have to go out of business or reinvent themselves to produce operational options that ensure success. Given the level of failure we are staring at in this school district, all the leaders who failed these kids need to step aside.

We absolutely owe it to the children and parents in Asbury Park, NJ to demand leadership changes that can open the flood gates to strategies that track to success, offer new management alternatives, inspire creative changes, support process reengineering efforts, etc. that will put 'our' - New Jersey's high risk students - FIRST.

We need business leaders, vocational trade experts, universities, educators, and volunteers... How about taking the $26,782 per student which is currently funding the education of each student per year in Asbury Park and assigning all or a portion of that money to the #1 teaching university in the country OR the #1 teaching college in New Jersey?

How about letting 'the' experts lead these children out of the darkness? Who is willing to help? Who will end the cycle of failure in Asbury Park, NJ which has lasted more than 40 years?

I know this issue and the issues in Camden, Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, Paterson and beyond are not in many of our backyards, but is another generation of failure funded off tax dollars really acceptable to anyone out there?

In closing, I'm sticking to last week's Blog theme inspired by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who once said, "If you bungle raising (your)children, nothing else matters very much."

Go to Part I of the Asbury Park School Crisis series in the Blog Post before this one where I start what I call an "Idea and Knowlege Exchange" in an effort to beg others for help!

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Quote of the Day: "God help the students stuck in the adult power-struggles in Asbury Park, New Jersey." Author Unknown

Asbury Park, NJ: We bungled the kids...

2011-04-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis said, "If you bungle raising (your) children, nothing else matters very much." The same standard applies to our country... For decades we have bungled raising America's children in Bruce Springteen's backyard and beyond... In my view, it means our generation and New Jersey has failed these kids.

How could this happen in Asbury Park, NJ - a sleepy oceanfront community located just miles from the epicenter of one of the most affluent markets in the world? How could this happen in the iconic town where Springsteen's glory days began at the famous Stone Pony?!

I'm posting this blog for the 17 & 18 year old kids who literally cannot write for themselves... and who find themselves frozen and failing in the dysfunction of a mandatory educational system that has not lived up to the values, tenets and commitments of our U.S. society. No winners here - everyone is at fault except the innocent students who are relying on our generation to right what went wrong.

For too many years, the vitriolic debates have raged on between school administrators and government agencies; between unions and politicians; and they have left parents from statistically 'good' school districts deaf to the desperate cries and blind to the tears of parents in the 'at risk' districts from Washington, DC to Camden, NJ to Newark, NJ to Detroit to my beloved New Orleans... At this point, all the adults engaged in the contrived 'philosophy of failure' war need to stop.

To put this demand in context, allow me to start with a long-overdue apology to the students, parents and teachers associated with the Asbury Park High School System: I'm so sorry.

Here are the devastating and disturbing facts as they were reported by the NJ Department of Education on 10/27/10 in the Asbury Park Press for the 2008-2009 school year: This wake up call from America's high school students in Asbury Park is heart breaking...

1) 72% of its students failed the High School Proficiency Assessment in language arts

2) 86.1% failed the math portion

3) After three tries, ONLY 34.9% were able to pass the HSPA

4) Average SAT scores are 325 in math and 330 in verbal

5) In 2008-2009, the total cost spent per pupil per year = $21,177

6) In 2009-2010, the total cost per pupil per per year = $26,782, (Updated this Blog Post with Opinion Page Data from the The Asbury Park Press, May 2nd, 2011)

On April 27th 2011, the fate of more of our kids came into focus as the Associated Press reported data from U.S. Census figures:

"Among adults in the United States 25 and older, only 10.6 million U.S. women & 10.5 million men have master's degrees or higher. Measured by shares, that's about 10.2 percent of all U.S. woman have advanced degrees compared to 10.9 percent of men.**"

** Please Note: Women still trail men in professional sub-categories such as business, science and engineering.

"When it comes to achieving a bachelor's degree, roughly only 20.1 million U.S. women and 18.7 million men have reached that goal." That means that only 38.8 million out of 350 million people in the United States have accomplished the educational requirements in a bachelor's program." What do these facts say about the current curriculum requirements and government mandates; and all the fancy teaching tools, technologies, processes and methodologies we refuse to change?

Hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars have been invested in both statistically 'good' and 'bad' schools every year for decades... so how can it be that a whopping 311,200,000 of our citizens completed no 4 year post-secondary education programs at all? Maybe we have to rethink what we are preparing (prepping) these kids for in high school during these valuable years they can never get back?

Not every child aspires to go to college and that's fine when it's their choice and/or if they have the skills to opt for an entrepreneurial path. But we're not talking about having 'choices' today. We're talking about stubborn adults and people in charge whose refusal to change created the very systemic environmnet that has left too many kids unfairly locked in a savage system of failure. Given these facts, why on earth are all the so-called 'good' K-12 school districts cheerfully patting themselves on the back so hard? Answer: They avoid statistics they don't want to be measured on.

FACT: The public screams they don't want U.S. jobs moving overseas at the same time POST-high school failure rates continue to sky-rocket for districts across the nation. I've been a global recruiter for two decades and I know first hand that this fact is undermining the U.S. talent pool and at a minimum it will take more than a generation for our nation to recover from what we've done to ourselves.

It's wrong that as soon as college acceptance letters arrive @ high school guidance departments,'another group' of students become 'somehow' immediately unaccounted for. I call them the lost generation of the 'high potential / privileged kids' who just drop out of college & out of sight.

I've witnessed helicopter parents drop off the face of the earth from the exhaustion brought on by 'their' own behaviors during those high school years, while K-12 school districts simply desert these tweeners in droves** (**the teens operating be'tween' high school & adulthood) for fear they'll drag some school statistic or magnet success factor down.

What this means is that no one is capturing the challenges or solving the unique problems facing these young people who started out with 'promise' & 'privilege." Find me one professional in any high school who is studying why high school alumni are dropping out of colleges in record numbers?

Let's use my dart board management approach to guess the answers we can't get from school administrators: What happened to 'our' kids? 1) Couldn't manage college level course-work despite the A's in high school? 2) Mom stopped writing the research papers? 3) Parents lost jobs/got divorced/ whatever... which crippled the financial & emotional landscape of the family? 4)Simple time management challenges? 4) The school choice/culture didn't work out? 5)Too much alcohol or extra-curricular fun without understanding these behaviors will undermine the best scholastic & athletic effort? 6) Home sick? 7) Can't make Dean's List to give parent's bragging rights? 8) A mental health issue or crisis that came out of nowhere? 9) Lost confidence or footing in this new environment?

Whatever the issues, what are the answers for change? Perhaps we can create a "High School-to-Life Transition Office" in high school guidance departments so kids can go back where they were educated and comfortable to get advice on how to find on-campus solutions to resolve college challenges like all the managable issues listed above. "Favorite" teachers & respected D.A.R.E. officers often casually fill this role for the kids who were more outgoing and connected to faculty during their high school years, so the idea has roots in a path some kids already take to get help.

The thinking is that because local taxpayers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the education of residents for the first 13 years, it would be helpful for the country to know what the Return-on-the-taxpayer-Inventment turned out to be by the time students reached their 3rd year 'out' of high school. If we identify the issues, we have a chance at adopting approaches to benefit the next generation of kids we are responsible for educating.

I believe if we focus on what it is this young group of citizens is facing, we can help them by educating & coaching them more thoroughly on the pitfalls of college life that most students can survive if they have the skills & knowledge necessary to fight back. But forget this idea because no one has had the courage or stomach to own the grim 'tweener drop-out rate' in our nation's history and that's why so few people know that the only 11.09% of U.S. citizens possess a Bachelor's degree.

Good gosh - now we have to discuss the 12 million-plus immigrants unaccounted for in the recent U.S. Census; those who arrived in the country creatively and with language barriers. How are we going to get the necessary life skills and knowledge to their kids so they can thrive successfully into adulthood in their new country?

Obviously these courageous 'at risk' kids use the power of prayer to drown out the screams demanding they return to their countries of origin. The Foodtown in Red Bank NJ will confirm that their fresh flower supply is often sold out & depleted daily by Mexican Day Laborers and their beautiful children who purchase the flowers to lay them with reverence at the foot of a statue as they pray to the Virgin Mary. Children praying in any language on our soil cannot be left out of the education loop just because adults haven't figured out solutions to the adult issues of our time.

The obscene funding for repeat failure in Asbury Park - that is the $21,177 per student X 13 years in K-12 years equals $275,301 in tax dollars spent per child. If it's a family with 4 children, this city spends $1,101,204 to educate this one family. How did we get to this place where no one is accountable for these statistics when our nation has a giant 'vested' & 'financial' interest in making sure that each & every child can read by the time we're done funding them?

Would it be better to use the $275K per student to assign one tutor per family in high risk areas to make darn sure they are leaving high school with marketable skills and the potential to succeed? In the face of decades of repeat failure in Jersey City, NJ - The idea of charter schools began with one grandmother's belief that perhaps students should be allowed to leverage 'community tax dollars' designated for them to opt for an 'alternative path' to education. The hope was that it would lead to a college degree or vocational certification program; and/or that at a minimum these students would leave high school with the credentials to take care of themselves and their families by the age of 20. I'm routing for grandma!

U.S. taxpayer money already supports a two-tiered system for secondary education comprised of magnet and comprehensive high schools. The idea was to create schools which offer a select group of students a high-quality education often combined with a specialized education in arts, sciences or technology. Students have to pass entrance exams to attend. Though they are located in the same socio-economic areas, magnet high schools dramatically outperform comprehensive high schools in all measurable academic indicators including state assessments, college acceptance and drop-out rates. To achieve these goals, states have been redistributing tax dollars from the local sending districts for years.

The quality of most magnet schools are great. But explain to me how a system of alternative schooling and the distribution of tax dollars designated for a child across district lines is okay for gifted students, but a system someone is willing to create is NOT okay for 'at risk' kids who need to be saved from the failure rates in Asbury Park, Jersey City & Camden?

Many of the magnet high school programs do not serve second-language learners, so these students must attend comprehensive high schools. When the comprehensive school has a 40 year past-performance history of failure, and busing those kids out to any sending district is resisted & blocked by all the usual suspects, it's obvious why parents would seek comfort and results in an 'alternative' route & environment that could include the prospect of a Charter School.

Should we turn to our State Universities for help? Maybe they should get the tax dollars we set aside for high school students starting in junior and senior year. The goal would be for kids to leave HS 'somewhat' college-trained and on-track for an Associate's Degree or technical vocation. I continue my mantra as a global recruiter: If kids can't read or add or spell, there are few jobs they will ever qualify for.

For the kids who 'want to' or 'must' move to paying jobs right out of high school, the Dept of Education could partner with Home Depot, professional offices, Lowe's, banks, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, health clubs and other local small businesses to help those who aren't college bound. Why can't we create BIGGER Tax Credit Programs for companies that participate in educating our kids during high school; or reward companies that offer college tuition reimbursement to those high school students who become full time employees,(Details about incredible corporate tuition programs are in an earlier blog post, but shhh - the high schools don't explain these FINANCIAL options to kids or parents either. We don't want to ruin a pre-set statistic that gives the district Magnet School status).

Perhaps we can give kids "DeVry Tech School-like" vocational credits for participating in the partnership with companies designed to transfer knowledge on how to use computers beyond texting, run cash registers, count money, make cash deposits, cook or serve food, paint houses, work in medical facilities, call centers, packaging plants, banking centers, whatever...

As I mentioned, my recruiting teams have been hiring America's young adults in Corporate America for 25 years and too many have arrived clueless about rudimentary skills and tasks. So I'm asking you to do DO ANYTHING we can think of so all 'our' youth leave school believing they can do something if the traditional scholastic route has failed or is not an option.

There has to be some brave leaders somewhere in this country with the skills, competencies, educational credentials and business experience who can show us how to save this new generation of children from the terrible fate we banished them to?

You see, my daughter graduated from a comprehensive high school in a statistically 'great' district in New Jersey surrounded by teachers & mentors who supported and challenged her. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from The Ohio State University in three years because teachers inspired her to push herself, (it had nothing to do with my husband and me). As she marched into her first job in NYC in 2010, it was great day for my kid and our family... but what about all the other kids and their families?

I'm disappointed and ashamed that so little has been done to help the children in Asbury Park who are less than 10 miles up the road from me.

My generation did this, so I apologize to all the students living in the shadow of Bruce Springsteen's backyard and across this nation...

I know many of you can't read this blog, but I give my word that I will participate in forward-thinking ideas & solutions to help you and your friends succeed.

I promise.

With respect & hope,
TishTrek

Quote of the Day by John F. Kennedy: "Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation."

Zap Group Recruits TishTrek as Global Business Development Officer

2011-04-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

If you want to create jobs, then believe in start-up companies AGAIN. I took the plunge and it feels just terrific!

I'm pleased to report that TishTrek was recruited by Zap Group LLC. This week, I accepted a position as Global Business Development Officer. I am an equity partner and I'm honored to announce that I was elected to the Zap Advisory Board. It was a great week!

The Zap Group is our NEW privately held start-up technology company being launched on May 1st!

As the 10th Anniversary of 9-11 approaches, I'm proud to partner with revered global business & technology leaders to introduce market offerings, products & services dedicated to homeland security and public safety. Our goal is to leverage our combined talents to contribute to the health, welfare and safety of future generations.

Zap's focus on security, surveillence & safety gives us the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way in the fundamental shift from reacting and responding to events to anticipating and preventing them. We have developed a revolutionary way to identify targets, security breaches, suspicious persons or objects and we have created an extraordinary means to get real-time data to responders, to prevent or mitigate disasaters, catch violaters or terrorists or provide information to warfighters on the ground, air or sea.

Our software is proprietary technology developed by our team utilizing our own resources; we already have several fully issued United States Patents with several additional patents pending. Our developers have already successfully delivered some of the most advanced technology inventions of our time.

Our market capabilities are far reaching. We have already inspired the interest of law enforcement, information technology, media, public transportation, retail, and maritime operations worldwide. Value propositions dedicated to the military and other government agencies, as well as institutions such as universities, schools and municipalities are in-process.

Zap solutions are software, application and content based, and are NOT intended to require redesign of display screens, hardware, control keys or keyboards. Our "apps" have templates to work with various types of devices. In this manner we will offer 'universal' applications and internet-related access, independent of particular types of devices.

TishTrek will introduce the Zap Group Team and our solutions at the Union League Club in NYC on Wednesday, June 29th! Here we go... More details will arrive soon.

Best regards,
TishTrek

Confessions from a Hard Working Dad

2011-04-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG.

So you landed your dream job, what exactly do you know about compensation in Corporate America? And what do you plan to do with your money once your company starts paying you?

An employment expert who was a business partner for many years spent 18 years working with several of the global financial firms that faltered in 2007 & later failed in 2008. Before he took his own life inside his Boynton Beach home one December day, he spoke with riveting candor about 'consequences' as we continued our work together as professionals.

As he navigated frustration and disappointment, he asserted the following:

"I secured a master's degree from a great university and for 18 years I left my home destined for work in NYC before 6 a.m.; never returning until after 8 p.m. In the end - all of my money and my family's dreams were tied up in the affluence & success of great companies I helped build and honestly thought I would retire comfortably from. I was loyal and dedicated to all my clients because I was inspired by my work and I felt so proud and blessed to be part of great organizations where people treated each other like family."

"It's all still unbelievable to me. When these companies failed without warning in September 2008, the invoices stopped being paid so paychecks & bonuses stopped immediately; the stock options & restricted stock (aka: our kid's college fund) that I had enjoyed as part of my all-in compensation for over 14 years were worthless; my 401K plan evaporated before my eyes and I still had bills, bills, bills and mortgage(s)... All this as our family's COBRA Benefits immediately demanded payments of $1300 per month."

He continued...

"My incredible wife spent most of these years raising our wonderful kids and supporting our community with the dollars of our partnership. The hardship of our circumstances and the embarrassment of our financial crash downward has already caused our partnership and relationship to spiral in the same direction.

Our kids are still at ages tracking towards their adult dreams just like we'd always planned. My second oldest child had to leave the university she loved during her sophomore year as we filed for bankruptcy. To the amazement of everyone who knew us and who admired my work ethic, our family simply ran out of money and credit options because we were too financially over-extended to be unemployed for more than a few months."

"The short-sell of our two homes in South Jersey and Boca Raton, Florida earlier in the year was the low-point. It was a painful and devastating experience for the entire family (especially my kids...) as we left the town that had embraced us with so many special times & memories. We had to move away from familiar faces and friends just to start living within our means."

Emphatically, he continued...

"I wish I could get all the wasted money back. I would give anything to put the $40,000 back in the bank that we used for that built-in swimming pool added in 2006. At age 41, I would not have moved from our comfortable and beautiful home that was almost paid off to that waterfront property that we recently had to give up; I'd give anything to erase the ridiculous home improvements that were financed off the equity and inflated value of both homes over many years - we're talking $100's of thousands of dollars. What was I thinking?"

"I'd give anything to get back the value of the stock options & restricted stock awards that I received for high-end performance that helped achieve corporate goals and that took me away from family more times than I want to remember. I was slow, calculating and always conservative about exercising my stock plans because that money - those corporate rewards - were dedicated solely to the college expenses of my four kids. You see - we had a plan, but it failed because all my eggs were in one basket. One of our kids was lucky enough to finish four years of college before our personal crash; but the last three - our two other daughters and 17 year old son were not so lucky. When the company failed, the value of these financial vehicles went to ZERO."

"I can only say I'm sorry because companies come and go... After so many companies I was tied to failed, the worst part was becoming the victim of my own purchase and credit decisions. As I looked in the mirror, I was forced to realize that a lot of what I did was based on how I wanted our family to be perceived in our social circles and communities in NYC, NJ and Florida. My past-performance history in this regard highlights house-obsessed decisions and the acquisition of material goods that did not put our kids first."

"My only hope now is to get back in the game. I need to rebuild my businesses or find a new job as soon as possible so I can show my kids how a person truly can rebuild & recover from past mistakes."

As he worked to rebuild, unexpectedly his own father died of natural causes... adding a personal hardship to an already tough year.

The new job never came. The Palm Beach Post published an 18 word Death Notice of his passing in December, 2008. He was 43 years old.

A New York Jewish Community Center would publish a single line of condolences to members of his family in a congregation's newsletter in February, 2009.

He was a successful businessman until - in his own eyes - he wasn't anymore. He spent 60 hours a week at the office for over 20 years helping to build up the companies he worked for, believed in and supported like a champion. But... as we all know - the economy changed.

In those circles where people are too often measured by the size of their home, their last paycheck or donation, some of the best people on the planet can expect nothing more than a short 18 word Death Notice.

At age 43, he had already painfully figured that out and he took it hard.

With respect,
TishTrek

Thought of the day: "Those who love and accept you unconditionally, don't care where you live or what you buy. The people who matter most are only focused on 'who' you really are; and above all - they hope you love and accept them back."

College Costs: ON-THE-JOB Tip!

2011-04-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Yes - for those high school seniors in the throws of figuring out if you and your family can afford to send you away to 'that' four year university or college of your dreams, I want to remind you AGAIN of the important information below.

It's high school graduation season and there are many options that can help you chase your dreams beyond the usual route or plans!!! Do your research and re-read my the Blog Post below!

My father-in-law - who was a professor @ the College of Staten Island for 30 years - always stated that the Acquisition-of-Knowledge should NOT be viewed as something you do for four quick years after high school; he believed it should be a 'lifetime commitment!' Some would say, nice thought, but how can anyone afford to do such a thing?

What most high school students and many parents don't realize is that for more than 40 years a large percentage of corporations have offered varied forms of Tuition Reimbursement Programs. Check out the terrific plan sample highlighted below.

Here is an actual Tuition Program straight from a corporate benefit handbook:

• To qualify for the Tuition Reimbursement Program, schools have to be accredited colleges or accredited graduate schools.
• Employees must receive a C- or better, or a Pass if pass/fail basis. For CLEP exams, you must receive a passing grade and show proof of college credit acceptance from the academic institution for which you are applying for college credit.
• Employees need to have received a performance rating of at least 3 – “Strong” rating or better on the last performance review for undergraduate and graduate courses to be reimbursed under the Tuition Reimbursement Program
• The Tuition Reimbursement Program pays 100% of tuition costs for full-time employees and 75% of tuition costs for part-time employees (not including amounts covered by other sources; such as grants, scholarships, etc.) for approved courses
• There's a maximum annual benefit of $5,250 per calendar year for undergraduate courses, and $12,000 per calendar year for graduate courses or a combination of graduate and undergraduate courses. Fees for CLEP exams are included in these limits. All reimbursement costs are the responsibility of each individual department; however, budget restraints cannot be used to deny reimbursements.

High schools don't tell kids about corporate tuition reimbursement programs because most school districts are graded & earn points when they are ranked across the state on how many kids immediately track out of high school and go directly to college.

The sad fact is: Many 18 year old kids are simply not ready, prepared or even have a clue as to what they want to do for their rest of their lives @ this juncture in their life. Aside from that, too many families figure out that they simply do not have the means to participate in funding their children's college dreams, so... For gosh sakes - Let corporations help!

Make no mistake, it's important for kids to spend some part of their high school years gaining skills & experiences that will help them secure the entry-level positions they will need to survive and thrive.

All adults should be screaming from the roof tops that these kids should not leave high school without doing some combo of the following: Make sure you have a basic understanding of math-for-life & accounting. Learn how to type on a keyboard beyond 'LOL' and 'How r u?'; take business writing courses; learn as many computer programs for business as possible; and sharpen your presentation skills!

Finally, take any course or become involved in any extra-curricular program that builds confidence and communication skills. Every year, high school students should be working on enhancing their face-to-the-client skills! Most entry-level opportunities and all high end executive positions require skills and competencies in all these critical areas.

Those who complete their education while getting ON-THE-JOB experience & training actually show up at the job interview with a real competitive edge. Aside from that fact, it is always impressive to employers to find out that a person who wanted to improve him/herself by increasing their knowledge and credentials was willing to execute those requirements on their own time and around the responsibilities of their job. This highly motivated person has already demonstrated a track record of excellent time management skills which helped balance two priorities! Is that you?

Best regards,
TishTrek
Quote of the Day: "If you leveraged an option to get someone else to pay for college costs - Congratulations! You belong at the head of the class!"

Hank Greenberg: A Bronze Star Vindication

2011-04-09T02:42:00.000-07:00

TishTrek - The JOB BLOG!

James Freeman's book review in the Wall Street Journal this week is a 'must' read!

TishTrek comments on Mr. Freeman's critique of Roddy Boyd's book, "Fatal Risk," which documents the real story behind the intentional ouster of former CEO Hank Greenberg and the destruction of American International Group, Inc., (AIG).

The book is a page turner! See my letter to the Wall Street Journal below.

-TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Cc: james.freeman@wsj.com
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 5:35 AM
Subject: Eliot Spitzer's Assisted Suicide of AIG = Hank's Bronze Star Vindication!

Dear Editor,

James Freeman's critique of Roddy Boyd's "Fatal Risk" (Bookshelf, April 5th) reads like The Murder on the Orient Express. There's someone powerful connected to the destruction of AIG lurking in every car including some of Eliot Spitzer's former colleagues at Paul, Weiss et al who lined up to give the proverbial trainman on-going cover to secure their seats in first class while Mr. Spitzer collected his fare for that trip to the governor's office.

Agatha Christie wrote, “The whistle means that help is near," so kudos to Mr. Boyd for following the stench and blowing a whistle. It's clear former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was 'pushed' out by Mr. Spitzer and by all 'those' who helped mostly because over twenty of the most powerful corporate counter-parties in the world and high net worth clients tied to AIG's financial-products subsidiary were desperate to funnel 100% of their contrived risk through someone else's company.

For decades, CEO Greenberg's weekly risk management and accountability meetings across all businesses kept the focus on shareholder interests and successfully rooted out AIG employees determined to do the company harm. Those of us who worked for Mr. Greenberg's Executive Team know - as a matter of fact and principle - that AIG managers on the inside together with their counter-parties and lawyers on the outside could not have pulled off their three year subprime-mortgage binge nor could they have collusively infested the financial system with such a high level of intentional deception off the back of AIG without getting Mr. Greenberg out of the way in 2005.

We can expect some fascinating sequels to "Fatal Risk" once the world deciphers the 700,000 pages of AIG documents and deposition testimony from those faceless Spitzer witnesses who intentionally destroyed The House that Hank Built for personal profit. In the meantime, Mr. Spitzer arrogantly uses his Ashley Dupre-Client #9 cover at CNN as a salacious deflection tactic to divert public attention from his role as the political thug who ousted Mr. Greenberg when the financial stakes of his supporters required the assisted suicide of AIG.

You see, the whistle means that a Bronze Star vindication of the honorable Hank Greenberg is near.

Respectfully submitted,

TishTrek

Former AIG Manager, Professional Staffing
& Executive Recruiter

72 Wall Street, NYC location, Feb 1997 - Jan 2000

Jenkinson's Pavillion: For the Love of Kids on April 10th, 2010

2011-03-08T00:28:00.000-08:00

Meet the Brady Bunch from Pt. Pleasant who inspired all so others with illness could live...

Dear Friends Everywhere:

SUNDAY, APRIL 10th, 2011!!!

The Carmie Brady Foundation is a 501c (3) charitable organization that is dedicated to financially assisting children and adults who are suffering from serious illness. Time is donated by our wonderful volunteers, there are no paid employees.

Our mission is twofold. The Foundation has committed to raising $100,000 to support the Carmie Brady Room at Hope Lodge, a beautiful building located in New York City. The Hope Lodge is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, and patients are able to stay at the lodge free of charge while receiving treatment at any New York hospital. Money dedicated to Hope Lodge is raised by the Brady Bunch team, which participates in Walk for the Cure each October.

Each spring, the Foundation hosts an annual fundraiser dedicated to assisting families throughout Northern Ocean and Southern Monmouth Counties, who are facing catastrophic medical bills because of a seriously ill child. The family is encouraged to use the money for whatever will make their child happy and comfortable. To date the Foundation has raised over $100,000, which is distributed to unfortunate and deserving families.

This year our annual fundraiser is scheduled for April 10th, 2011 at Jenkinson’s Pavilion in Pt. Pleasant Beach, N.J. We are asking your support in the form of a gift, a gift certificate, or cash equivalent that will be used in our prize raffle, with the total proceeds benefiting our children. Please check out our website carmiebradyfoundation.com to learn more about our organization, or if you would like to purchase tickets for the event.

Your support is so important to the success of our endeavors and is very much appreciated. Please feel free to contact Charles Brady at 732-278-2686 or Sandy Leibfried at 732-295-0869 with any questions regarding the Foundation or for assistance in collecting a prize for our event. We thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity in helping to make our fundraiser a success.

I'd like to explain why I revere this effort. After you go to the website - carmiebradyfoundation.com - I hope you read about the man and the three sons who loved Carmie Brady so much that they went out and started a foundation and a movement-in-motion that inspired an entire region of New Jersey!

See Charlie Brady's story below my signature. No wife or mom could ask for more.

Best regards,
TishTrek

When I was an Officer for the Pt. Pleasant Foundation for Excellence in Education, I wrote & published the biography below to highlight the accomplishments of our foundation's 2007 Community Leader Award Recipient - Charles A. Brady. I'm sharing Mr. Brady's incredible life-work-volunteer story with all of you because he is one of the most inspiring leaders I ever met.

In this blog I've often mentioned the importance of assessing whether or not employment candidates operate with the kind of Leader Behaviors a company would be willing to risk its reputation and brand on,(i.e. Does the candidate have a consistent history of operating with a commitment to business integrity, quality, compliance, management courage, transparency, teamwork & collaboration?).

In the case of Charlie Brady, I would hire him - in a minute - if I was looking to fill a postion as a Certified Financial Planning Executive; I would trust him & the company he runs to invest all or part of my life savings; and I would donate my money to any worthy cause as soon as I knew he was personally promoting the effort. I would do all of these things because Mr. Brady's varied successes are the direct result of repeat behaviors executed over-and-over again throughout his life and career.

It was a privilege to research & write Charlie Brady's story. Here it is:

The Pt. Pleasant Foundation for Excellence in Education honored Charles A. Brady and inducted him into the 10th Annual Hall of Fame on Friday, March 9th as a 2007 Community Leader Award Recipient. In the 1960’s, on the inside flap of a book entitled, “My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Coretta Scott King sent the following handwritten note to Mr. Brady, “Charley - With deep appreciation for your concern and support of those ideals of love, justice, truth, peace and brotherhood. May our common efforts hasten the day when Martin’s dream will be realized. Coretta Scott.”

In discussing the selection of Mr. Brady for this award, Foundation President, Dr. Rob Coombs, “Our members are in awe of Mr. Brady’s background and the ideals he lived for over four decades. We are honored to highlight the life of this local resident and extraordinary humanitarian.”

Mr. Brady’s commitment to children and his efforts as a peacemaker, promoting nonviolence and equal treatment for all races caught the attention and gained the support of Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. early on – a relationship of mutual respect and friendship between the King Family and Mr. Brady dates back to 1965. He would later author a biography on Dr. King for the National Catholic Encyclopedia.

Mr. Brady, a Certified Financial Planner since 1981, graduated from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark where he won 2nd place in the NJ State Wrestling Championship. After graduating from Seton Hall University in 1958, he served as an assistant to the vice president of a major gas corporation. Mr. Brady’s strong desire to help others led him out of Corporate America and into the Immaculate Conception Seminary where he was ordained a priest in 1966.

He served in several black communities in New Jersey, while assigned assistant pastor of Holy Spirit Church and St. Peter Claver Church in Orange and Montclair. Among his many accomplishments, he taught Dr. King’s nonviolent philosophy to black youth, and established athletic teams that won 3 national championships in 8 years. Mr. Brady’s efforts as an educator, coach, mentor and father figure inspired many of his students to become athletes and stars in college; and most became productive members of their communities.

Mr. Brady was a guest of Dr. King at the Southern Christian Leadership Convention; he had also been a guest in the King home; and often represented Mrs. King at functions in New Jersey. Mr. Brady’s commitment to civil rights during this volatile time in the country’s history was met with resistance in some circles in NJ and as a result, Mr. Brady was forced to repel a mob mentality that was behind a no-holds-barred effort to remove him from the important work of his parish.

Mr. Brady prevailed and he again found strength and support in the words of Mrs. King when she wrote in a letter dated, August 30th, 1968, “Dear Charley, ... the trouble you described in the Newark school was in many ways painfully familiar… it certainly requires more love, courage and strength to prevail and endure than it does to retaliate in kind. Your courage and determination to lovingly demonstrate the nonviolent brotherhood so desperately needed in the world is a source of inspiration and encouragement… With love, Coretta.”

Mr. Brady lives the tenets of courage and encouragement everyday. Beyond the establishment of the youth sports teams that won 3 national championships, he also helped kids, who could count on his commitment to them, win 4 eastern championships, 8 state championships, and 23 count championships. He established and coordinated an alternative high school in Orange, NJ for students who could not learn within a normal structured environment. No matter what the challenges, Mr. Brady worked tirelessly to build confidence by inspiring each kid one unique student at a time. He helped every child find a place to contribute something meaningful because his experiences proved to him that every child had something meaningful to share.

A year after resigning from the priesthood, Mr. Brady met his wife Carmie. A year later they married and had three sons: Matthew, Scott and Patrick, all of whom were exceptional athletes and graduates of Pt. Pleasant Borough High School. When Carmie Brady passed away from cancer @ age 50 on May 21, 2004, Mr. Brady and his sons decided her spirit would live on through a not for profit organization called The Carmie Brady Foundation which is dedicated to improving the lives of children and adults facing cancer and other devastating illnesses.

The Foundation - carmiebradyfoundation.com - has successfully raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. "The Brady Bunch" Walk for the Cure Team is 500 volunteers strong and growing. This remarkable family has committed to raising $20,000 a year for five years to support the Carmie Brady Room at Hope Lodge. Hope Lodge is a beautiful building located in the heart of New York City, which is sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Cancer patients from all over the world can stay at the lodge free of charge while they are receiving treatment at any hospital in New York.

After receiving his CFP designation, Mr. Brady taught the course at Monmouth College. He established Associated Financial Planners, in 1982. Matt and Scott are partners in the business along with Robert Clayton, another Pt. Pleasant Borough graduate. Patrick is an NCAA Division III All-American Wrestler and will graduate from the College of New Jersey in May, 2007. He plans to teach and coach.

Mr. Brady’s biography has appeared in Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in the East. He has appeared on CNBC’s Money Talk and other TV programs. He is a 30 year member of the Elk’s Handicapped Children Committee and was 2003 Shillelagh of the year for the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh, a club that has given over $300,000 to local charities and families. He is on the Presidential Advisory Committee of USAllianz, Franklin Templeton Funds, Hartford, and ING. He was also named to “America’s Best Financial Planners” by the Consumer’s Research Council of America in 2006.

In 2003, this past President of the Sea Girt Chamber of Commerce was selected NJ State Businessman of the Year by the National Congressional Committee; he has founded organizations dedicated to supporting people in the field of Financial Planning and he has been a contributor to countless other local organizations including: Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Friends of Manasquan VFW, “Think Tub” - a group dedicated to raising funds for sick children; and he is a loyal repeat sponsor of the Pt. Pleasant Athletic Boosters Association and the Pt. Pleasant Foundation for Excellence in Education.

In conclusion, Dr. Coombs adds, “Mr. Brady’s mentor, Dr. King, often called for “personal responsibility” in fostering peace. The personal responsibility displayed by Mr. Brady throughout his life honors Dr. King’s legacy and all of us in untold ways. We are thrilled to induct a humanitarian and citizen of Mr. Brady’s caliber into the Hall of Fame.”

************

On a final note, I know champions and winners when I meet them or interview them because I've had the privilege to live among them and to work next to individuals like Mr. Brady all my life. How about you? Are there people who set the standards for excellence in your life? If so, don't forget Brian Molko's quote: "Imitation is the highest form of flattery." Let's immitate Charlie Brady and offer some help.

Thank you.

Best regards,
TishTrek

Charlie Brady & 3 sons who inspired all so others could live...

2011-02-17T00:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends of the Foundation:

The Carmie Brady Foundation is a 501c (3) charitable organization that is dedicated to financially assisting children and adults who are suffering from serious illness. Time is donated by our wonderful volunteers, there are no paid employees.

Our mission is twofold. The Foundation has committed to raising $100,000 to support the Carmie Brady Room at Hope Lodge, a beautiful building located in New York City. The Hope Lodge is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, and patients are able to stay at the lodge free of charge while receiving treatment at any New York hospital. Money dedicated to Hope Lodge is raised by the Brady Bunch team, which participates in Walk for the Cure each October.

Each spring, the Foundation hosts an annual fundraiser dedicated to assisting families throughout Northern Ocean and Southern Monmouth Counties, who are facing catastrophic medical bills because of a seriously ill child. The family is encouraged to use the money for whatever will make their child happy and comfortable. To date the Foundation has raised over $100,000, which is distributed to unfortunate and deserving families.

This year our annual fundraiser is scheduled for April 10th, 2011 at Jenkinson’s Pavilion in Pt. Pleasant Beach, N.J. We are asking your support in the form of a gift, a gift certificate, or cash equivalent that will be used in our prize raffle, with the total proceeds benefiting our children. Please check out our website carmiebradyfoundation.com to learn more about our organization, or if you would like to purchase tickets for the event.

Your support is so important to the success of our endeavors and is very much appreciated. Please feel free to contact Charles Brady at 732-278-2686 or Sandy Leibfried at 732- 295-0869 with any questions regarding the Foundation or for assistance in collecting a prize for our event. We thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity in helping to make our fundraiser a success.

I'd like to explain why I revere this effort. After you go to the website - carmiebradyfoundation.com - I hope you read about the man and the three sons who loved Carmie Brady so much that they went out and started a foundation and an movement that inspired an entire region of New Jersey. See Charlie Brady's story below my signature. No wife and no mother could ask for more.

Best regards,
TishTrek

When I was an Officer for the Pt. Pleasant Foundation for Excellence in Education, I wrote & published the biography below to highlight the accomplishments of our foundation's 2007 Community Leader Award Recipient - Charles A. Brady. I'm sharing Mr. Brady's incredible life-work-volunteer story with all of you because he is one of the most inspiring leaders I ever met.

In this blog I've often mentioned the importance of assessing whether or not employment candidates operate with the kind of Leader Behaviors a company would be willing to risk its reputation and brand on,(i.e. Does the candidate have a consistent history of operating with a commitment to business integrity, quality, compliance, management courage, transparency, teamwork & collaboration?).

In the case of Charlie Brady, I would hire him - in a minute - if I was looking to fill a postion as a Certified Financial Planning Executive; I would trust him & the company he runs to invest all or part of my life savings; and I would donate my money to any worthy cause as soon as I knew he was personally promoting the effort. I would do all of these things because Mr. Brady's varied successes are the direct result of repeat behaviors executed over-and-over again throughout his life and career.

It was a privilege to research & write Charlie Brady's story. Here it is:

The Pt. Pleasant Foundation for Excellence in Education honored Charles A. Brady and inducted him into the 10th Annual Hall of Fame on Friday, March 9th as a 2007 Community Leader Award Recipient. In the 1960’s, on the inside flap of a book entitled, “My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Coretta Scott King sent the following handwritten note to Mr. Brady, “Charley - With deep appreciation for your concern and support of those ideals of love, justice, truth, peace and brotherhood. May our common efforts hasten the day when Martin’s dream will be realized. Coretta Scott.”

In discussing the selection of Mr. Brady for this award, Foundation President, Dr. Rob Coombs, “Our members are in awe of Mr. Brady’s background and the ideals he lived for over four decades. We are honored to highlight the life of this local resident and extraordinary humanitarian.”

Mr. Brady’s commitment to children and his efforts as a peacemaker, promoting nonviolence and equal treatment for all races caught the attention and gained the support of Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. early on – a relationship of mutual respect and friendship between the King Family and Mr. Brady dates back to 1965. He would later author a biography on Dr. King for the National Catholic Encyclopedia.

Mr. Brady, a Certified Financial Planner since 1981, graduated from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark where he won 2nd place in the NJ State Wrestling Championship. After graduating from Seton Hall University in 1958, he served as an assistant to the vice president of a major gas corporation. Mr. Brady’s strong desire to help others led him out of Corporate America and into the Immaculate Conception Seminary where he was ordained a priest in 1966.

He served in several black communities in New Jersey, while assigned assistant pastor of Holy Spirit Church and St. Peter Claver Church in Orange and Montclair. Among his many accomplishments, he taught Dr. King’s nonviolent philosophy to black youth, and established athletic teams that won 3 national championships in 8 years. Mr. Brady’s efforts as an educator, coach, mentor and father figure inspired many of his students to become athletes and stars in college; and most became productive members of their communities.

Mr. Brady was a guest of Dr. King at the Southern Christian Leadership Convention; he had also been a guest in the King home; and often represented Mrs. King at functions in New Jersey. Mr. Brady’s commitment to civil rights during this volatile time in the country’s history was met with resistance in some circles in NJ and as a result, Mr. Brady was forced to repel a mob mentality that was behind a no-holds-barred effort to remove him from the important work of his parish.

Mr. Brady prevailed and he again found strength and support in the words of Mrs. King when she wrote in a letter dated, August 30th, 1968, “Dear Charley, ... the trouble you described in the Newark school was in many ways painfully familiar… it certainly requires more love, courage and strength to prevail and endure than it does to retaliate in kind. Your courage and determination to lovingly demonstrate the nonviolent brotherhood so desperately needed in the world is a source of inspiration and encouragement… With love, Coretta.”

Mr. Brady lives the tenets of courage and encouragement everyday. Beyond the establishment of the youth sports teams that won 3 national championships, he also helped kids, who could count on his commitment to them, win 4 eastern championships, 8 state championships, and 23 count championships. He established and coordinated an alternative high school in Orange, NJ for students who could not learn within a normal structured environment. No matter what the challenges, Mr. Brady worked tirelessly to build confidence by inspiring each kid one unique student at a time. He helped every child find a place to contribute something meaningful because his experiences proved to him that every child had something meaningful to share.

A year after resigning from the priesthood, Mr. Brady met his wife Carmie. A year later they married and had three sons: Matthew, Scott and Patrick, all of whom were exceptional athletes and graduates of Pt. Pleasant Borough High School. When Carmie Brady passed away from cancer @ age 50 on May 21, 2004, Mr. Brady and his sons decided her spirit would live on through a not for profit organization called The Carmie Brady Foundation which is dedicated to improving the lives of children and adults facing cancer and other devastating illnesses.

The Foundation - carmiebradyfoundation.com - has successfully raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. "The Brady Bunch" Walk for the Cure Team is 500 volunteers strong and growing. This remarkable family has committed to raising $20,000 a year for five years to support the Carmie Brady Room at Hope Lodge. Hope Lodge is a beautiful building located in the heart of New York City, which is sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Cancer patients from all over the world can stay at the lodge free of charge while they are receiving treatment at any hospital in New York.

After receiving his CFP designation, Mr. Brady taught the course at Monmouth College. He established Associated Financial Planners, in 1982. Matt and Scott are partners in the business along with Robert Clayton, another Pt. Pleasant Borough graduate. Patrick is an NCAA Division III All-American Wrestler and will graduate from the College of New Jersey in May, 2007. He plans to teach and coach.

Mr. Brady’s biography has appeared in Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in the East. He has appeared on CNBC’s Money Talk and other TV programs. He is a 30 year member of the Elk’s Handicapped Children Committee and was 2003 Shillelagh of the year for the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh, a club that has given over $300,000 to local charities and families. He is on the Presidential Advisory Committee of USAllianz, Franklin Templeton Funds, Hartford, and ING. He was also named to “America’s Best Financial Planners” by the Consumer’s Research Council of America in 2006.

In 2003, this past President of the Sea Girt Chamber of Commerce was selected NJ State Businessman of the Year by the National Congressional Committee; he has founded organizations dedicated to supporting people in the field of Financial Planning and he has been a contributor to countless other local organizations including: Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Friends of Manasquan VFW, “Think Tub” - a group dedicated to raising funds for sick children; and he is a loyal repeat sponsor of the Pt. Pleasant Athletic Boosters Association and the Pt. Pleasant Foundation for Excellence in Education.

In conclusion, Dr. Coombs adds, “Mr. Brady’s mentor, Dr. King, often called for “personal responsibility” in fostering peace. The personal responsibility displayed by Mr. Brady throughout his life honors Dr. King’s legacy and all of us in untold ways. We are thrilled to induct a humanitarian and citizen of Mr. Brady’s caliber into the Hall of Fame.”

************

On a final note, I know champions and winners when I meet them or interview them because I've had the privilege to live among them and to work next to individuals like Mr. Brady all my life. How about you? Are there people who set the standards for excellence in your life? If so, don't forget Brian Molko's quote: "Imitation is the highest form of flattery." Let's immitate Charlie Brady and offer some help.

Thank you.

Best regards,
TishTrek

Meredith Whitney: Muni-Boom Boom!

2011-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

It's time to stop the savage & contrived attacks on Meredith Whitney - one of the premier analysts on the planet! (2.9.11, WSJ - "In Muni-Bond Ills, Danger & Hope," M. Corkery - pg 1 & NY Post - "DC tackles munis", P. Tharp)

Ms. Whitney's hard line view on struggling municipalities across America
should inspire solutions. She's a brilliant & proven leader with the smarts, objectivity, iron will and management courage to call things as she sees them. I heard her loud & clear in 2007 and I'm listening now.

What she understands is that states & municipalities 'must' borrow billions of dollars no matter how high their revenues go because it is what they do to fix "shortfalls in cashflows;" it is "how they pay past-due bills;" and how they "pay for required contributions to those pension systems." She concludes that this debt path is not sustainable and I'd say the residents in NJ, CA, IL and NY are living her point.

Since 2007, the condescending efforts to smear Ms. Whitney and to banish her industry opinions to some "Boom Boom Room" have mostly been launched by 'the same exact people' who ruined our economy and failed the global companies that trusted them.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek

MilitaryOneSource.com: Spread the NEWS!

2011-02-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Start spreading the NEWS!

Introducing www.MilitaryOneSource.com!! - The Fox Business Page & a cutting edge company called FlexPaths alerted me to this BRAND NEW market offering that supports all those families in our country who willingly give so much so others can live.

Introducing a 24/7 Resource & Support Center for our nation's Military Members, Spouses & Families! FREE Tax Filing being offered NOW thru April 18th by calling # 800-730-3802.

Tax Help is Here At No Cost to Military Families @ militaryonesource.com! Now available! Military OneSource brings military families to a customized H&R Block solution which includes @ Home online tax filing (formerly TaxCut), plus tax consultations by phone - completely free.

For issues of relocation, education, parenting, stress, financial counseling: Toll-Free: 1-800-342-9647 /En español llame al: 1-877-888-0727 www.militaryonesource.com

Share this information with friends, family members, church and community groups. Get the word out! The Defense Department has just expanded the benefits of these programs with the help of First Lady Michelle Obama and the Obama Administration!

These programs have been designed to help Military Members, Military Families, Guard / Reservists, Service Providers, Coast Guard Assistance and Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.

Sometimes, the only help others need is a voice that shares important information!

The next benefits tied to these programs will be all about jobs, jobs, jobs, so stay tuned!

Best regards,
TishTrek

Tuition Reimbursement: While ON-THE-JOB!

2011-01-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG

My father-in-law - who was a professor @ the College of Staten Island for 30 years - always stated that the Acquisition-of-Knowledge should not be viewed as something you do for four quick years after high school; he believed it should be a 'lifetime commitment!' Some would say, nice thought, but how can anyone afford to do such a thing?

What most high school students and many parents don't realize is that for more than 40 years a large percentage of corporations have offered Tuition Reimbursement Programs like the great 2011 plan highlighted below.

Here is an actual Tuition Program straight from a corporate benefit handbook:

• To qualify for the Tuition Reimbursement Program, schools have to be accredited colleges or accredited graduate schools.
• Employees must receive a C- or better, or a Pass if pass/fail basis. For CLEP exams, you must receive a passing grade and show proof of college credit acceptance from the academic institution for which you are applying for college credit.
• Employees need to have received a performance rating of at least 3 – “Strong” rating or better on the last performance review for undergraduate and graduate courses to be reimbursed under the Tuition Reimbursement Program
• The Tuition Reimbursement Program pays 100% of tuition costs for full-time employees and 75% of tuition costs for part-time employees (not including amounts covered by other sources; such as grants, scholarships, etc.) for approved courses
• There's a maximum annual benefit of $5,250 per calendar year for undergraduate courses, and $12,000 per calendar year for graduate courses or a combination of graduate and undergraduate courses. Fees for CLEP exams are included in these limits. All reimbursement costs are the responsibility of each individual department; however, budget restraints cannot be used to deny reimbursements.

High schools don't tell kids about corporate tuition reimbursement programs because most school districts are graded & earn points when they are ranked across the state on how many kids immediately track out of high school and go directly to college.

The sad fact is: Many 18 year old kids are simply not ready, prepared or even have a clue as to what they want to do for their rest of their lives @ this juncture in their life. Aside from that, too many families figure out that they simply do not have the means to participate in funding their children's college dreams, so... For gosh sakes - Let corporations help!

Make no mistake, it's important for kids to spend some part of their high school years gaining skills & experiences that will help them secure the entry-level positions they will need to survive and thrive.

All adults should be screaming from the roof tops that these kids should not leave high school without doing some combo of the following: Make sure you have a basic understanding of math-for-life & accounting. Learn how to type on a keyboard beyond 'LOL' and 'How r u?'; take business writing courses; learn as many computer programs for business as possible; and sharpen your presentation skills!

Finally, take any course or become involved in any extra-curricular program that builds confidence and communication skills. Every year, high school students should be working on enhancing their face-to-the-client skills! Most entry-level opportunities and all high end executive positions require skills and competencies in all these critical areas.

Those who complete their education while getting ON-THE-JOB experience & training actually show up at the job interview with a real competitive edge. Aside from that fact, it is always impressive to employers to find out that a person who wanted to improve him/herself by increasing their knowledge and credentials was willing to execute those requirements on their own time and around the responsibilities of their job. This highly motivated person has already demonstrated a track record of excellent time management skills which helped balance two priorities! Is that you?

Best regards,
TishTrek
Quote of the Day: "If you leveraged an option to get someone else to pay for college costs - Congratulations! You belong at the head of the class!"

Tucson, AZ: Journalism 101

2011-01-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to TishTrek - The JOB BLOG: Journalism 101

This post is dedicated to all the career professionals @ Fox News Channel, The Wall Street Journal and all other media outlets who followed the facts to light the way for viewers and readers everywhere during and after the assassination event which killed six and wounded 19 in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, January 8, 2011.

Thanks for reminding the nation through your reporting that the true tenets of journalism which demand objectivity and a review of the facts have to prevail over the horrific agendas of those hell-bent on doing our citizenry harm through hostile actions, words, and deeds.

With gratitude,
TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: Tish Ferguson ; Hannity@foxnews.com ; Forbes@foxnews.com ; newsmanager@foxnews.com ; oreilly@foxnews.com ; glennbeck@foxnews.com ; huckmail@foxnews.com ; ontherecord@foxnews.com ; Kelly@foxnews.com
Cc: countdown@msnbc.com ; mediainquiries@msnbc.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 4:48 PM
Subject: Thank you Fox News: The Assassination of FACTS in AZ starts with Keith Obermann!

Dear Fox News Family,

THANK YOU for hearing my screams in the wind last weekend. I've appreciated your headlines, thought-provoking news reporting and help over the past four days. Viewers across the globe appreciated having a place to go to assess the FACTS from your programming and we were extremely grateful for the Wall Street Journal editorial on Monday as well. We also want to acknowledge all the other media outlets & journalists who recognized and talked about the actual collision of innocence and evil that played out before our own eyes on the world stage in Tucson, AZ.

On behalf of America's beautiful baby girl, our revered federal judge, the beloved campaign worker, the grandma & mom from New Jersey, the hero husband, and all the others murdered & wounded in Arizona, I'd like to thank Fox News for working tirelessly to counter the outrageous accusations heaped on viewers and readers alike as they were made by Keith Olbermann, Caroline Howard, the Pima Sheriff and the Westboro Baptist Church. Make no mistake, they all selfishly climbed on our dead and didn't think twice about using their bodies as soapboxes to promote their agendas & vendettas to keep political hatred alive.

By every standard, the boundaries of human decency continue to be ignored by these people even as the families of our dead plan funerals. Their legacies and careers will be forever indelibly tied to the damage they tried to do and the pain they tried to inflict off the back of an innocent third grader who was shot to death by a mentally ill man after winning her first Student Council election. Our nation will not forget.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell

Keith Olbermann: "Scottie Who Knew Too Much"

2011-01-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Thank you, MSNBC.

I was so completely outraged by the comments of Keith Olbermann and others immediately following the assassination of fellow citizens in Tucson, Arizona that I was compelled to send the passionate e-mails below 'directly' to Mr. Olbermann and to anyone who would listen @ both MSNBC and Fox News.

Mr. Olbermann said goodbye to viewers last night and ended by reading a James Thurber short story as was often his habit on Friday nights. This one was titled "Scottie Who Knew Too Much" and it was published in 1940. The story's final line was this: "It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers."

Yes, Mr. Olbermann - journalists have a responsibility to live the tenets of the Thurber message you selected for your final moments on MSNBC. Best wishes with your job search. Good luck moving forward.

Sincerely,
TishTrek
Quote of the Day:
"If you see something, say something." NYPD

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: mediainquiries@msnbc.com ; keith.olbermann@msnbc.com
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 11:47 AM
Subject: The Assassination of FACTS starts with Keith Obermann!

Dear MSNBC Management,

What a disgrace! Keith Olbermann and every other reporter and anonymous blogger in this country sarcastically & maliciously minimizing the horror of yesterday's assassination attempt on a revered Arizona public official by targeting Palin & others while screaming their 'usual' contrived talking points are what's wrong with this country! People who work to score twisted political points off the backs of dead & wounded public servants and who use the death of Dallas Green's beautiful and innocent 9 year old grandchild for sick personal promotion is what is destroying the tenor & discourse in our country!

What happened to mourning the dead out of respect for a few days so a sense of community & determination can prevail over chaos & horror to bring all thinking people in our country together @ a time of tragedy? Who raised you people? Right after the Oklahoma Bombing, the same losers with microphones were screaming "Right Wing" in crowed theaters! Right after the Times Square Bomber terrified all of us in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg was QUICK (like all of you!!) to succinctly announce to the press & public that the bomber was probably upset about Obama Care! The rhetoric & hypothesis's were wrong and no one ever apologized for the hysteria & damage these false comments inflicted! The Times Square Bomber turned out to be part of a terror network and I'm still waiting for a few apologies!

Get a grip people! When we find out that today's 22 year old assassin has been exhibiting bizarre behaviors for 15 years and that he was actually practicing taking people out with a remote control 19 hours a day on the #1 selling Video Game Call-of-Duty Series, 'Black Ops & 'Modern Warfare 2' before today's killing spree, shall we blame Palin & Beck for that too? Obermann's ignorant comments that had no roots to any investigative journalism were abusive to our stunned nation last night. Thanks for the new low. Now - Out of respect for the dead, can you give your on-line rancor & political rhetoric a rest for a few days and let us bury these people in peace. - Thank you.

I've worked global jobs in New York City and beyond for 25 years, so don't call me some Right Wing-Nut, Desperate New Jersey Housewives clone and/or a Snooki look-a-like who doesn't get it. I'm a professional woman who has been married for 25 years; I'm the mother of two children in this country who witnessed the horrors & devastation of 9/11 with my own eyes. Trust me - Keith Olbermann is the one who doesn't get it!

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
732-714-8483 - Home

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: Countdown@msnbc.com
Cc: Hannity@foxnews.com ; Forbes@foxnews.com ; newsmanager@foxnews.com ; oreilly@foxnews.com ; glennbeck@foxnews.com ; huckmail@foxnews.com ; ontherecord@foxnews.com ; mediainquiries@msnbc.com
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 3:35 PM
Subject: Note to Mr. Olbermann: The Assassination of FACTS in AZ starts with YOU!

Dear Mr. Keith Olbermann,

I was the only one in my house left with the stomach to listen to your rants on Countdown over the past two years, but last night you ended that for me when you created the Worst-of-the-Worst cable moments of all time.

In the late 1990's I turned on The Keith Olbermann Show with great anticipation as you launched your first political analysis show where it was my personal observation that you hated dissecting the details of 'that' dress in the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal, (you told us you hated it!). I know it wasn't the show you had expected to be part of and the nation's obsession with that current event was distasteful for you... and as a viewer I felt that show ended the way it started: painfully.

I believe listening to the other side of legitimate arguments is important in the debate process so I execute my responsibility to seek out knowledge on all sides of issues whenever I can. That approach helps position, reposition or validate my arguments; and/or it can change my point of view if I'm enlightened by something I hadn't researched or known previously; or it helps me prepare a response when someone asks my opinion about an important issue of our time.

Here is my eclectic list of some of my talking-head favorites: Sean Hannity, Anderson Cooper, Bill O'Reilly, the late Tim Russert, Alan Colmes, Ralph Peters, Brit Hume and the mix of guests at the desk of Fox News Sunday, David Gergin who spoke at my daughter's OSU graduation in June, George Stephanopolis, etc. - Why are some of those left-leaning voices in the mix and not yours'? Because unlike you, they never stopped respecting me & others.

What you did last night (Saturday, Jan 8th) on television was one of the most disrespectful & disgraceful acts in political theatre that I've ever witnessed. Moderate, middle-of-the-road people who vote based on issues were actually tearfully praying for the health and welfare of the victims of the Arizona assassination event; we were mourning the death of a revered judge, a beloved social worker known for his community outreach efforts on behalf of the 8th District, and we were shocked by the the death of a 9 year old child who - at that hour - we didn't even know was the grand daughter of a much loved sports legend. We were literally praying for the life of a radiant shining star in our U.S. Congress; and then there was YOU on MSNBC and your distorted face, and your rant, and your hatred..... I sat so sickened & so stunned by your words that I knew instantly that nothing you say could ever influence my opinion again. I e-mailed friends until 3 a.m.

Sir - look at the tape: It was as if you were speaking to only yourself in some mirror as you deeply enjoyed this moment on the back of this horrendous tragedy in Arizona. You looked like you actually thought the importance of your contrived and unresearched diatribe somehow trumped the required respect for the dead and wounded yesterday. Where do you get off doing such a thing??!!

I'm sending the e-mail chain below because I was a follower-of-yours-from-the-early-days. Go ahead and tell me to pound salt.... but when I turned on the television in the 1990's you were a vibrant, handsome, high potential & high caliber talent blazing a trail on cable and ready to set the world on fire. The confluence of your interests & deep knowledge in sports, current events & politics differentiated you from others. At that time, I thought you had an interesting edge over peers in your field. Ten years later, your positive face to the audience is gone. Forget about those of us you could give a damn about... Families have to bury their children in Arizona this week, so please be quiet for five minutes and give 'it' a rest. Thank you.

The e-mail chain under my signature below captures what went wrong in the MSNBC studio last night!

Sincerely,
Tish Ferguson from Pt. Pleasant, NJ
Contact Data Below

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: Hannity@foxnews.com ; Forbes@foxnews.com ; newsmanager@foxnews.com ; oreilly@foxnews.com ; glennbeck@foxnews.com ; huckmail@foxnews.com ; ontherecord@foxnews.com
Cc: mediainquiries@msnbc.com ; keith.olbermann@msnbc.com
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 12:55 PM
Subject: Fw: The Assassination of FACTS in AZ starts with Keith Obermann!

EVERYONE @ FOX NEWS:

HELP!!! OMGosh - I'm furious!! I just sent the note below to MSNBC and because I couldn't sleep all last night, I sent a similar note to writer Caroline Howard @ Forbes On-Line @ around midnight because she produced the first article that I read yesterday which maliciously targeted Sarah Palin and 'all of you' as a root cause for the assassinations that played out in Arizona yesterday! I'm writing to you to ask you to FIGHT BACK with the FACTS because I'm confident that you will prevail as the consummate professionals & journalists that you are.

I've never been so proud to be a FOX NEWS viewer! I've never been so turned-off or rendered so sick to my stomach by any journalist before last night! I watched Keith Olbermann climb on the back of dead public servants whose next of kin had barely been notified; and to make those actions worse he essentially jumped on the tragic death of Dallas Green's innocent granddaughter to attack all of you and by extension "me" - your repeat customer and viewer - a patriot, professional woman, wife, working mom, and public servant for 30 years. How dare he do such a thing??!!

Keith Olbermann's attack on all of us was sooo over-the-line, so I'm respectfully requesting that you to publicly defend me and all of your viewers, repeat customers and followers in the days ahead.

The families of beautiful nine year old girls who are murdered and those of revered public servants who are mortally wounded in an open square in our country need to be protected from the vitriolic & contrived rants of people like Keith who put themselves & their agendas before every tragedy everyday. I applaud Sunday Night Football and ESPN for assessing Mr. Olbermann's abysmal behaviors that consistently target large segments of the viewing population and for eliminating him as a FACE & VOICE of America's favorite past-times.

He's no political analyst; he's a washed-up political hack who made a conscious choice last night to run-his-highly-energized-mouth off the back of someone else's dead child at the same time one of America's radiant and shining stars in Congress fights for her life in critical care. The public had come to expect so little from Keith Olbermann, but no one expected this. - It's an unforgivable act.

Please READ my note below. Thank you.

With Great Sadness & Respect,

Tish Ferguson
2404 Maria Place
Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742
732-259-2780 - Cell
732-714-8483 - Home

MORGAGE CONSULTANT - NYACK, NY

2010-10-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

TISH TREK - THE JOB BLOG!!!

NEW POST 10/22: NEW POSITION for MORTGAGE CONSULTANT in Nyack, New York!!

My client is one of the largest banking and financial service organizations in the world. The domestic strength and extensive global network of this firm provides its employees with the best of both worlds - the friendliness of a local organization and the resources of a worldwide network - which guarantees diverse experiences and challenging career opportunities.

The mortgage consultant will generate and increase market share of high quality salable retail residential mortgage loans, primarily through realtor relationships, builder and branch relationships, while ensuring high customer service levels.

Develop and maintain long-term referral sources with branches, realtors, builders, attorneys and other external sources; service referrals from branches and other Company departments as appropriate.

Create a team environment in supporting assigned retail branches. Counsel high net-worth customers on various types of mortgage financing, choosing a program best suited to their needs; complete mortgage application, follow through to closing and resolve any problems, while ensuring salability and compliance guidelines.

Works closely with other branch employees (i.e. Financial Advisors and Premier Relationship Managers) to maximize cross-selling opportunities. Educate realtors, attorneys, builders, branches and public on mortgage programs through seminars, etc.

Complete other responsibilities, as assigned. Attain production goals, average loan size, fall-out and income expense goals; foster Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) relationships and community-oriented initiatives; represent the Corporation through interactions with realtors, builders and trade groups. Ensure compliance, operational risk controls in accordance with the firm or regulatory standards and policies; and optimize relations with regulators by addressing any issues. Promote an environment that supports diversity and reflects the brand. Maintain the company's internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators.

Basic Qualifications:

· Experience in portfolio lending highly preferred
· Knowledge of wealth management financial products preferred
· Strong network of centers of influence in the market
· Minimum of an Associate's degree in business, finance, related field or equivalent experience
· Minimum of one year’s proven mortgage banking experience or equivalent or minimum of two years proven customer service experience or equivalent
· Proven communications, sales, interpersonal and presentation skills
· Knowledge of secondary market guidelines and compliance requirements
· Highly motivated and able to act independently

My client is an Equal Opportunity Employer: EOE/M/F/D/V of the highest caliber.

Send your resume to Tish509@comcast.net
OR call: Tish Ferguson @ 732-259-2780

Recipes for the CFO: Who Cooked the Risk Books?

2010-09-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG

Corporate Quote for the Day: "If you compete, don't cheat!" - Tish

In the world of Information Technology, protecting the inventions of the brilliant developers and engineers who are driving business successes behind the scenes is a tenet of our industry. When someone on a team threatens to compromise that principle, it's our duty to take steps to secure and protect the intellectual property of those inventors.

Many of you have lived the journey from CRT's to the PC, CRM to B2B; and from web services to electronic communications networks (ECN) with a passion others will never understand. Thirty years ago, imagining dark pool aggregators and alternative trading services (ATS) or advanced clearing operations was something joked about after watching Star Wars movies. You've lived all sides of this fascinating business as you moved your companies from archaic stockbroker workstations to modern day wealth management platforms; from back-office to middle office; and you cheered for that BPO during the ascent of straight-through processing!

The Six Sigma & CMM standards dedicated to execution services have moved to excellence in algorithms, sponsored access, smart order routing and beyond. The most seasoned among us, watched as the retirement of the tandem computing dinosaur gave way to the engineering wonders of UNIX workstations; until they were seamlessly superseded by NT. Three cheers for this delightful & never-ending ride!

Finally, virtual & cloud computing bursts on the scene to remind us that there are always dedicated professionals inventing, developing and creating solutions to help companies compete and execute business. Those customers who enjoy trading in multiple asset classes or who move goods between countries have information technology professionals to thank for inventing white board-to-execution solutions which have doubled the number of trading venues and markets they are able to access around the globe.

There are countless examples of these successes in product development, so here's today's plea:

If a leader in your company ever instructs you to infringe on the copyright privileges of another man's work (i.e. - that is if you're asked to copy proprietary computer programs or code, and/ or to steal trade secrets in any form to compete-like-a-cheat) - the only right answer is to run like hell to alert someone who has the authority to stop this request in its tracks.

Let me introduce you to a sales executive who - by cheating a competitor - taught all of us that it's always important to say something, if you see something. It was a bad day when the federal authorities raided the corporate headquarters of his employer - a respected market leader; what was particularily disturbing & disappointing is that a revered customer of this man had its offices raided too! What played out for the two years that followed was all thanks to the calculated actions & behaviors of a few. No employee population should have to go through this; never mind two seperate employee populations on the same day.

Employees in two states were evacuated from their offices by Federal Authorities who had arrived at their respective headquarters with guns drawn. Moving trucks backed into the buildings so they could remove everything the signed warrants & subpoenas gave them permission to take. Executives were ushered to interview rooms and to mobile sub-stations to answer questions. It felt like chaos for the 540 unsuspecting employees impacted, inconvenienced & shook up by these dramatic activities brought on by the determination, behaviors and executive mandates of a single sales executive looking for a fast commission. Equipment, tapes, documentation and other technologies were removed from the premises of the targeted facilities because of a serious complaint filed by a competing software services vendor in Federal Court.

Technical experts would later agree that the vendor's code had been stolen and reproduced. The sales executive's goal - in fact - was to infringe on the targeted vendor's copyrights and to willingly misappropriate trade secrets to meet some quota. He also instructed his employees to use their stellar influence and negotiation skills as well as their expense accounts to "inspire" employees at the customer site to help them execute this illegal plan. In the end, they convinced others to participate.

One evening after business hours, competitive intelligence was removed from a locked conference room at the customer branch where demo workstations had been set up for the vendor selection process. In short, copying the data code in question cheated the competitor. Perhaps, not a big deal to people who don't understand our business, but a very big deal indeed. It eliminated a legitimate opportunity for the IT team that created this market offering to benefit the competitive advantage it had worked so hard to create. After all, their ideas, research dollars, hard work and time had produced the winning solution in the first place.

The raids by the Feds, grand jury appearances, trial dates, finger-pointing, settlement term discussions among parties, people refusing to admit guilt, complex employee relations issues and amended complaints played out for over two years before a consent to judgement was agreed to. It was hard for the company to focus on much else and it was a difficult time for every employee forced to live with the consequences of these circumstances.

Those charged in this case used a defense which included blaming those employees at the branch who provided access and who helped to obtain and make copies of the materials at the heart of this case. The fact that no element of force was used during the breaking & entering at the customer site helped them. Unfortunately, an amended complaint would later arrive naming the client as a co-defendent in this copyright infringement case leaving the fate of $29 million in annual revenues and the technical solution for over 10,000 workstations hanging in the balance. Obviously, it was time to settle.

In the end, a confidential financial settlement along with an agreement to buy some of the petitioner's subsidiaries helped this case go away. Make no mistake - in this very public case - we're talking hundred of millions of dollars and client relationships ruptured forever. There were no winners.

Employees were terminated. Years later, the business unit in the middle of this scandal would be sold off in pieces... never to be heard from again.

But here's the problem with this outcome: The actual employees tied to this dismal chapter in corporate history were quietly dismissed and/ or shuffled out of these companies without a word. This put all of them - including the sales executive at the center of this case - inside the next unsuspecting company without anyone realizing that there was a direct & serious risk to their company tied to hiring them.

Since we have a responsibility to protect the revenues and assets of all companies, I suggest some kind of regulated system similar to the CRD System which tracks the U-4 & U-5 employment/ termination records of FINRA licensed employees in Fiancial Services. The mission is clear: to preserve the integrity of hiring processes tied to Global Information Technology because IT is - in fact - tied to every global financial transaction on the planet.

Perhaps, it should be called U-6 Deep-Six Compliance. How it would work: If IT personnel willingly use their skills and competencies to commit crimes or to take actions to compromise copyright laws, and/or to steal intellectual property, trade secrets, and proprietary systems from fellow professionals and competitors - there would be a process - rooted in law - which would prohibit them from working in the IT field and/or in any industry they intentionally worked to deceive or harm.

There are lots of legal settlements that play out in Financial Services. The infractions and crimes of the FINRA licensed people involved in such situations are always documented on U-4 & U-5 forms for all future employers to see. This kind of system needs to be duplicated in Information Technology.

The economic meltdown is reason enough to create a certified central authority to monitor & flag Information Technology professionals going forward. Perhaps some kind of Federal U-6 Deep-Six Officers Committee authorized to ban those trained in the IT industry altogether if necessary? Or - at a minimum we agree to ban people from those industries adversely impacted by actions intended to defraud others?

Of course, first we have to be focused on those cases already settled by the Federal Courts because they already know each person's role in these cases before settlement; then you'd have to create a legitimate mediation process so people could defend charges, etc...

Think about it: Does anyone have the names of all the revered Financial Engineers and/ or Quantitative Analysts who helped bring down Lehman or AIG? - Who are those people who took those jobs to cook the risk books?

Some of us know the names of honorable men and women who would not do this work. But few of us know the actual names of the employees who did. How can that be?

CEO Dick Fuld & AIG's Joseph Cassano were not the IT professionals behind the scenes creating the complex mathmatical formulas and designing the complex financial instruments which were built to hide the risk all companies had a fiduciary responsibility to mitigate. Where are all these people now?

How do you know you haven't already hired some of these integrity-challenged hires into your company? You don't because there is no system to protect you from them. So what do you think we should do about this complex recruiting challenge of our time?

You can write to Tish509@comcast.net to suggest solutions. Please contribute your ideas to this amazing challenge that does not have an easy answer - Thanks.

I promise to pass your professional opinion & suggestions to Governor Chis Christie in New Jersey & Mayor Bloomberg in NYC.

Best regards,
TishTrek

Recipes for the CFO: How the Books are Cooked! Chapter 3

2010-09-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Corporate Quote for the Day: "People who fail to live leader behaviors at home will not live them in the office... or anywhere else for that matter". - Tish

One day a global company sent out a $36,000 accounts payable check which represented a 25% fee on a $144,000 base salary for a Sr. Program Management position filled by the in-house corporate recruiter assigned to the Information Technology Applications Department. The check was returned to the Human Resources department because the post office box was no longer in service. The Director of Staffing executed a good faith effort to reach out to the vendor this check was payable to.

To the stunned disappointment of company management, it was discovered that the address associated with the PO box belonged to the company’s Sr. Vice President of Applications Development. He was in business with six members of his department and an in-house recruiter. It was a staggering wake up call to find out these employees had profited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a four year period.

Worse yet, the employment candidates hired by this team also profited. It was later discovered that this troop of professionals had traveled in packs throughout their career and - in fact - had executed the same deceptive plan at their last employer where they had worked in the IT department of a NY hospital.

And here's an important kicker: The Employee Referral Program, which paid employees $5,000 for referrals that were hired, wasn't profitable enough. Instead of referring & hiring their candidates through this legitimate corporate staffing program, they concocted the more lucrative bogus/ fake employment agency plan.

These crooks killed cost-per-hire statistics and wasted the time of a lot of people. Recruiters and the external employment agencies who were out there working daily to deliver high caliber candidates had no clue that their candidates never had a chance to be hired by these decision makers & cheats inside the firm.

Think about this: Qualified candidates who arrived at this Fortune 500 company directly, through the employee referral program or from employment agencies not tied to these hiring managers took the time to dress, commute and interview with decision-makers on a hiring team who never intended to actually assess their skills or hire them.

If you believe that every candidate is a potential client or decision-maker of your products, services and market offerings, then you have a responsibility to take every step to protect their interests. Honoring the tenets of equal employment opportunity is a corporate priority across America, so all companies must work to keep candidates from being adversely impacted or rejected in a staffing process for reasons not tied to their skills, competencies, background, experience and credentials.

Kroll International, a white collar investigative firm based in NYC, helped this company solve this crime. Their experts informed company executives that these people often change company names, addresses, and contact information because they are not only in the business of cheating your company, but the tax man too.

In the end, the company ramped up it's vendor management processes and ran Dun & Bradstreet reports on every company paid an employment agency fee over a 4 year period. They also investigated all silent limited partners behind the person or people who carried the 51% ownership stake in each firm. This small step helped lead them to some of the shell companies used to execute these crimes and to the invisable faces profiting.

The company actually stopped executing business with staffing vendors whose invoices and resumes were tied only to PO boxes, (i.e. with no legitimate street addresses or facilities tied to them). This situation played out several years ago, so the challenge now is this: In our evolving age of remote technology, executing business through e-mail and cell phones has become so commonplace that it actually compromises a company's ability to flag any number of suspicious activities on the front-end. That's why vigilance and a complete commitment to world class processes on the back-end of your vendor management programs are more important than ever.

If you manage employees who are doing such things inside your company, then you are accountable. Lax and/or chaotic staffing standards, processes and transactional procedures cannot be an option. Every company owns the responsibility to mitigate risks that deny great employment candidates and high quality vendor partners the legitimate opportunity to compete. The success of your company depends on the programs that generate revenues and protect assets. Are you satisfied that you are doing well in all these areas?

Good Luck!

Best regards,
TishTrek

Recipes for the CFO: How the Books are Cooked! - Chapter 2

2010-09-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Corporate quote for the day: "When there is no integrity, you have no brand." - Tish

A Fortune 500 company moved its offices from Manhattan to Jersey City in the late 1980's. At the time, there was a federally mandated change in I-9 Immigration Processing, so - as a precaution until the full extent of the mandate was understood by the firm - an employee in Human Resources was given the responsibility to retrieve citizenship documentation from contractors. Many worked for the Information Technology consulting firms that were chosen to facilitate the company’s move across the Hudson River. While focused on this assignment, it was discovered that over an 18 month period the company had been billed for 32 IT contractors who did not exist.

There were management teams who willingly signed off on timesheets and invoices for work that had never been performed. Timely payments had been made to the vendor, checks were cashed, etc... In this case, the managers were not silent partners of this particular consulting firm. Their approach to profit was to willingly take compensation from the firms whose revenues had been enhanced by their willingness to commit fraud.

Interestingly enough, the payouts to managers had come from other shell companies & limited partnerships which were conveniently registered to the same address of the IT consulting firm that had "won" the telecommunications contract. Their job was to set up a network infrastructure between the New York and New Jersey facilities which - in this case - had to be connected by way of tunnels under the Hudson River.

Why we should be outraged by situations like this is because it is an absolute affront to all the honest, hard working employees inside your company; and it's not fair to those tremendous partners in the IT vendor community who do execute their business with the best interest of your company in mind and with the appropriate level of excellence and integrity every single day. In these situations, these business leaders don't even get the opportunity to compete; and the company's shot at a best value-best buy proposition is totally undermined and compromised.

When we fail to address issues like this, we are forcing employees in good-standing to be managed by people we hired who lack honesty, integrity and other leader behaviors which research confirms has followed them since they were kids.** So what should you do?

It takes high caliber hires and excellent recruitment screening processes to keep repeat negative behaviors from adversely impacting your bottom line, so take the hiring process in your company more seriously today than you did yesterday. Then, ask yourself if it ever dawned on you to make someone responsible for physically counting all those contractors you are being billed for around the globe?

Remember that it takes world class processes in procurement and purchasing to battle white collar criminals who look forward to enhancing themselves off the back of your company anytime you give them the opportunity to do so. Today's advice is to start that audit of your end-to-end vendor management practices & policies.

Finally, do something to help innocent employees stuck in the middle of these awful schemes behind the scenes by promoting an MTA-like campaign which accentuates the values driving your firm. The theme: "If you see something, say something. Our success depends on it!"

Time is money, start now.

Best regards,
TishTrek

**Lominger Behavioral Studies

Recipes for the CFO: How the Books are Cooked!

2010-09-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG:

Bloomberg News reported on Thursday - September 9th that 1/3 of the corporations surveyed worldwide revealed they are the victims of fraud & embezzlement.

After listening, I only had one thought: This is news?

Then I thought about my kids: OMGosh - One third? Who raised these people? Then you have to push yourself to ask: Who hired them?

As a result of these revelations, I've decided to start a short series to educate others on how corporate crooks cook-the-books:

In Company A, it became critical to introduce world class procurement procedures and to focus on managing the acquisition of talent for all full time, part time, on-shore, off-shore and U.S. contract personnel through ONE office after the company's Chief Information Officer and 8 other senior business officers were terminated.

Here is what a Big 4 consulting firm & others helped Company A figure out:

Executives - some who had been with the firm for decades - had set up anonymous Consulting LLC firms where it was not transparent that the same managers entrusted to make the contract personnel decisions for the firm were actually partners, stakeholders and/or benefactors in the vendor firms selected by them.

While enjoying their executive pay packages, these people profited off of every hour of service performed by consultants in their departments to the tune of millions of dollars over many years. For years, the way many companies approached consulting procurement - especially in the area of information technology - created a ripe environment for this illegal activity to play out.

The unethical people who willingly participate in these kind of activities cause the pay and bill rates of consultants to sky-rocket in their companies and across the U.S. because these employees successfully create a “clandestine system” that allows them to hide behind the LLC header and manipulate the information and financing on both ends of the process. The level of deception is just mind-boggling to comprehend.

How secure are your company's purchasing and procurement practices? Is the wrong talent arriving at your company because every hire or contractor has to be funneled through contracting firms silently tied to your in-house executives? Bloomberg News already answered that question for us when they surveyed global companies.

Oh and by the way, the other reason corporate vigilance in this regard is important is to position your company to recognize the people and vendors who do these things and those who don't. I can promise you that these scams have kept some of the greatest companies on the planet from executing business that would have helped your company.

Make no mistake, you can't stop illegal activity. But introducing world class procurement/ purchasing procedures, researching all stakeholders who profit on the vendor-side and hiring people who live Leader Behaviors will definitely make it harder for those determined to cook your books.

Good luck.

Best regards,
TishTrek

This Mosque: Silence is not an option

2010-09-12T07:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Harry and I took our 9th Anniversary Journey on the SeaStreak Commuter Ferry to honor those murdered before our eyes during that enormity of horror known as 9-11.

While waiting for the boat, we met amazing & caring people who were headed to NYC to march against the proposed mosque. Harry and I thanked them for marching for us. We told them we supported them & that we appreciated the fact that they cared enough to use their feet to voice their opinions. Several times I casually blurted out, that I don't march but that I do write letters to the editor. Before we left the ferry to begin our trek towards Wall Street, we ended by thanking them for working to make a difference regarding this important issue of our time.

After our solemn walk to Ground Zero and St. Paul's Church... I realized that I shouldn't be simply thanking others for doing something that I should be participating in. So...

We changed our plans and marched with 9-11 families and thousands of others yesterday to protest this mosque - the planned global symbol of conquest called Cordoba House. I marched for all the reasons I outline in my letter to the editor below. It was published on Friday, September 3rd in The Ocean Star newspaper in Ocean County, NJ.

What I learned first hand over the past 20 years is that silence produces deadly results...

- TishTrek

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: letters@theoceanstar.com
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 12:52 AM
Subject: Hearts break and 9/11 History will repeat itself...

Dear Editor,

It's been 17 long years since the first World Trade Center attack and it's the ninth anniversary of 9/11, so make no mistake, Iman Feisal Rauf knows the protests in downtown Manhattan are not about mosque-building or freedom of religion and he's using this knowledge to his full advantage.

In the early 1990’s, many of us commuted past the make-shift mosque one floor up from the Chinese restaurant at Journal Square, Jersey City which was used as a camouflaged safe house by blind Shiek Omar Abdel Rahman to inspire young men to want to murder all of us. No one marched to remove that mosque.

In 1993, we watched in stunned disbelief when that same blind shiek masterminded the truck bomb explosion plot that blew a 10-story gaping hole inside the World Trade Center. Only 6 dead & 1,042 injured, so they vowed to come again. On 9/11 – we watched in absolute horror as others finished the job. No one marched to remove the mosques tied to these murderers.

In July 2010, it was reported that Al Qaeda follower Adnan Shukrijumah created his 2007 and 2009 plans to blow up New York City airports & subways in the clandestine corridors of his dad’s Brooklyn mosque. No one is marching to remove that mosque.

In honor of this 9th Anniversary, perhaps we could pause to remember the marching that was NOT done in front of mosques over the last 20 years. Perhaps we can celebrate the under-reported high percentage of U.S. citizens who actually do respect and cherish the tenets of religious freedom for all.

On this 9th anniversary of 9/11, my heart breaks for the 17th year in a row. After I honor our dead, I will bypass the unfortunate diversion created by Iman Rauf and salute those who taught me this: When you ignore history, history becomes destined to repeat itself.

God help & bless America.

Respectfully submitted,

Tish Ferguson

2404 Maria Place

Pt. Pleasant, NJ 08742

732-259-2780 – Cell

732-714-8483 - Home

9-11-10: A Journey to honor all of them & God

2010-09-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Today 9-11-10, Harry and I are retracing the steps of our 9-11 journey on that SeaStreak Ferry to honor those who died and to thank God for the 9th year in a row for the gifts he showered on us that day...

Nine years ago today: After our ferry took the first couple of hundred people from the chaos @ Pier 11 in the East River, it was HE who ushered us safely past Governor's Island and past the feet of Lady Liberty and under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. We prayed with HIM and it was HE who comforted us in the middle of that water.

HE fervently urged me to look away and I listened. After the second tower fell, I literally turned my body completely around and looked only to the east and the south so the power of the magnificent ocean would give my breaking heart strength. HE encouraged me to use the Sandy Hook landscape to try to counter the view of the enormity of horror that was so painfully seared & freshly etched in my mind.

God drove the SeaStreak Commuter Ferry that morning... I will never forget. I am always grateful.

May all those who died in New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania rest in everlasting peace. May all the hearts their lives touched beat to a drum that allows great memories to live on; and may the tears of millions help wash away the pain so we can clearly see what awaits all of us on the other side of this experience. God bless America.

With Deep Respect & Love,
Harry & Tish Ferguson

9-11 Anniverary: God Bless America

2010-09-10T07:53:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, September 11th 2001, I wrote the following:

Our View from NY Harbor on 9-11:

This morning 8:30 a.m., we boarded a Seasteak America Inc. Ferry in the Atlantic Highlands and then headed for New York at exactly 8:45. It was a clear day. We had overslept. As we watched out the window, we saw what looked like smoke billowing from the top of the World Trade Center. A fellow commuter called his wife. She confirmed there was a fire.

Moments later, over a ferry radio system the news arrived that - in fact - a hijacked plane had hit the World Trade Center. There was stunned silence while no one could remove their eyes from this view in the horizon as this terrifying history played out...

Our ferry continued under the Verrazano Bridge. As we continued to watch and as we drew closer to the Statue of Liberty, suddenly there was a fireball that we thought was bringing down an entire side of the WTC. A loud and breathtaking gasp filled the air. Whether it was our focus on the flames engulfing the first building or a matter of our view, none of us saw a plane coming... Moments later more radio communication at sea informed us that a second plane had actually hit the second tower. Fear and silence filled the air...

After being informed that Downtown Manhattan, the New York Stock Exchange, and all associated buildings were closing and being evacuated - we were told that the air around Manhattan had been "sanitized," which meant it had become a no-fly zone. Any plane trying to fly in that space would be shot down. Our eyes and our collective fear scanned the skyline and silently we prayed that all other landmarks would be protected, and that we - feeling somehow vulnerable in the middle of this water - would be safe too.

The crew of the Seastreak informed us that we were going to Pier 11 near South Street Seaport to help as many people as possible who were attempting to leave the city. There were thousands of people trying to get back to NJ. We could only take a couple hundred. We could only hope that more ferries would arrive there soon. We watched swarms of people begin their trek northbound towards the Brooklyn Bridge as they tried to beat the unknowns and the aftershock of what was to come.

As we pulled away from the dock, we looked up to the sky from the East River and watched the smoke pour over Wall Street from atop the Woolworth Building, the AIG building, and JP Morgan Chase. It was not like anything we had ever seen. Two of the largest buildings the world had ever known were spewing pieces from their silver shells which were brilliantly highlighted by the sun as they rained down on the East River, the Hudson River, and NY Harbor... This sad, reflective and horrifying moment reminded us that each reflection in the sky somehow symbolized a human life that wasn't returning home today.

Then came the news that our Pentagon had been hit... Our confusion and sadness heightened. The mushroom cloud that followed after these magnificent and incredible structures succumbed to the terrors of our society made us all realize that this was war.

A few hundred passengers on a simple commuter ferry alarmed, dazed and stunned, some with tears streaming, some with more fear than others - all of us frozen and bound together by a silence louder than any voice we had ever heard. It was the voice of "terrorism." - Tish Ferguson, 9/11/01 - 11 a.m. (portions of this piece were published in The Asbury Park Press & The Ocean Star, NJ - Sept., 2001)

***************

Later that day, my 8 year old son Scott got off his school bus in Pt. Pleasant, NJ and ran into my arms as I sat on the front steps of our home with my friend, Cheryl.

"Mommy! he yelled out. "Did you hear what happened today?"

"James said a giant plane flew into a big building in New York City!"

I threw my arms around him and hugged him as if it were the day he was born, and answered, "Yes, Honey. We heard about it. And Mommy loves you to the moon and back!"

By,
Tish Ferguson

A Quote for that day:

"What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind"
— William Wordsworth, (Intimations of Immortality)

Jersey Girl Takes On The World - katecferg.blogspot.com

2010-09-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

I was stopped in my tracks today by my daughter Kate's blog: "Jersey Girl Takes On The World" - katecferg.blogspot.com - which I had not read most of August. This is a moment moms & dads wait for..

Wednesday, August 11, 2010
My How Time Flies

My baby brother turned 17 today! I cannot believe it. I think I am in more shock right now than my parents are (although mom did cry last night and placed two pacifiers in a cake – yes, Tish really did that. Scott and I were a tad freaked out). In NJ, we receive our driver’s license at 17, and Scottie passed his test this morning. I felt like a middle-aged weeping mother as I ran outside in my running clothes to watch him leave with my car (this could be an issue) for work. I forced him to take the picture you see above. I then proceeded to tell him to drive safe, turn down his music, and watch for pedestrians. Oh boy, this is going to be fun.

Each year that I grow older never seems to phase me. I welcomed the last 21 birthdays with excitement for that next chapter in my life; I can officially drive (17), I can officially drive without a probationary license (18), I can buy cigarettes even though I don’t smoke (19), I am officially no longer a teenager (20), I can drink legally (21!). But when you watch those younger than you grow and hit ages that you remember quite well (they day I took my driving test seems like yesterday. I still remember the outfit I wore to school), it becomes scary. My brother is no longer little; he’s no longer the baby. He’s one year away from adulthood. He drove the car away, and I felt a part of my childhood drive away with him. Where’s that boy who I used to play school with? Where is that kid I taught to swim? I still remember (thanks to countless views of old home movies) the way he used to whine “Katie” when he wanted something. He now debates politics with me, talks about colleges, and comes to me when he has questions about friends and relationships.

I’m very blessed to have the bond I have with my brother – a bond that will hopefully grow even stronger with time. We’ve grown closer as we’ve grown older, and I now think of him as one of my friends. We still bicker like cats and dogs, and I think he secretly wants me to move out as quickly as possible so that he can once again commandeer the downstairs (he also wants a cool place to stay in the city). I picked him up from the airport last night, and we chatted about his trip and his birthday. He was nervous to take the test, and I was nervous for him. But when I woke up this morning, there was the text that shouted “I am now a licensed driver!” The text scared me half out of bed (he actually passed?!), and then a sense of pride washed over me. He did it. That little, slightly annoying, used to be chubby, trumpet player in the school band boy grew up over night….and I never saw it coming.

Happy Birthday Scottie! I love you! xoxo DON’T text and drive!

Posted by Kate at 10:05 AM on August 11th, 2010.

This message has been approved by The Mom. :)

Hank Greenberg: Labor Day Man of the Year!

2010-09-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Introducing my pick for 2010 Labor Day Man of the Year: Hank Greenberg!

Let's honor former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg who created 50 years of labor opportunities while satisfying millions of customers around the globe!

This weekend, as unemployment soars to numbers not to be believed - it's important to remember The House that Hank Built and to understand why celebrating Mr. Greenberg is long overdue:

The Wall Street Journal's 8/13 editorial "Eliot Spitzer's Last Admirer" reads like The Murder on the Orient Express. There is someone powerful connected to the destruction of American International Group in every car.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo followed Eliot Spitzer's lead as the proverbial trainman - the new collector of fares in the largest public conveyance of our time. They jumped in and targeted AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg mostly because at least twenty-four corporate counter-parties (and gubernatorial supporters) needed to funnel 100% of their risk through someone else's company in order to execute the calculated CDO-subprime business that hammered the economy. If you ever worked at AIG, then it's crystal clear that AIG employees on the inside and their counter-parties on the outside could never have collusively infested our financial system with fraudulent transactions off the back of AIG without getting Mr. Greenberg out of the way.

For 40 years, Hank Greenberg was a fierce and tenacious global leader who created competitive advantage which improved the lives of millions of consumers and employees around the world. Having said that, he was often wholly despised by the power-elite deal-makers in Manhattan because when a financial deal crossed his desk at 70 Pine Street with risks he refused to assume or representing a penny less than the profit he demanded for his shareholders, he stood up and walked away from the transaction leaving lots of commission-hungry fast-money types angry and disappointed.

Agatha Christie wrote, “The whistle means that help is near, Madame," so how come Attorney General Cuomo isn't following the stench and blowing his whistle to identify the real public officials, HUD executives, lending institutions, rating agencies, and traders whose actions were shrouded by clandestine alternative investment vehicles built to defraud others? The WSJ's advice to AG Cuomo is correct: Before that trip to Albany, he should embrace transparency and turn over the 700,000 pages of documents and deposition testimony of those key witnesses who helped all the faceless people destroy The House that Hank Built. But no one's holding their breath because Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Greenberg remind all of us that there are two types of men in this world - those who build things up and those who tear things down.

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Former Manager, Professional Staffing
American International Group, Inc.
72 Wall Street
New York, NY

The Chosin Few: Daniel Sharkey, NJ President

2010-08-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Tip-of-the-Day: Extra curricular activities and making time to honor the work & sacrifices of others can teach you a lot about yourself and others while you wait for that next job opportunity! Volunteer activities also provide unbelievable opportunities for networking with outstanding people.

Identify an activity or volunteer effort that you care about; then run out and do something meaningful to make a difference!

The press release below was published in The Ocean Star in Ocean County, New Jersey on May 13th, 2005. Running the Memorial Day Parade that year turned into a very personal and remarkable experience which enhanced my life because it bolstered my historic perspective and my knowledge about a few of my hometown heroes - including my Uncle Dan Sharkey and my neighbor & friend, former Pt. Pleasant Mayor Pete Marone.

Uncle Dan is my mother's brother and back in 2005, he had been my uncle for 47 years. Like many of the men and women of the Greatest Generation, he rarely talked about the time spent in the Korean War and had never discussed his role in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir with our family. Think about it: a local Memorial Day Parade created a vehicle for him to share and for us to learn about his shocking first hand experiences 55 years years ago.

In 2010, Uncle Dan was elected President of the NJ Chapter of the Chosin Few. Below is his story...

Press Release: Point Boro to honor the Chosin Few

Point Pleasant's Fourth Annual
Parade Committee has announced
that the 2005 Memorial Day Parade
is scheduled for Sunday, May 29 at
1 p.m. on Bridge Avenue.
There will be a program and
wreath-laying ceremony at the
Community Park immediately following
the parade. Music will be
provided by students in grades five
through 12 from all four Point
Pleasant Borough schools.

Five Grand Marshals have been
selected to highlight the diverse
experiences and accomplishments
of America's military personnel and
veterans throughout the world. In a
multi-week effort leading up to
Memorial Day, the committee
wants to share the details of the historic
events and the accomplishments
of this years' honorees.

This week, the committee is proud to
profile Grand Marshal No. 1 - the
survivors of the "Heroic Ordeal" of
the Korean War called the "Chosin
Reservoir Campaign."
The parade committee believes
that etched in the experiences and
faces of the members of the
"Chosin Few" is a truth worth
repeating this Memorial Day — the
riveting reality of how approximately
20,000 allied troops [17,000
of them men of the 1st Marine
Division] were attacked by 120,000
Communist Chinese forces during
sub-zero winter conditions is one of
the great examples of bravery and
teamwork in our time.

Though incredibly outnumbered in the
mountains of North Korea, near the
Chinese boarder in November and
December 1950, they successfully
destroyed and/or effectively disabled
all seven Chinese divisions
that were holding our American-led
U.N. forces at the reservoir. Against
all odds, they escorted 91,000
North Korean refugees to freedom
— a liberating act that successfully
repelled communism in the worst
of conditions.

Mayor Martin Konkus and the
council will salute with reverence
these distinguished survivors and
the sacrifices of their comrades,
especially those who gave their
lives in numbers unparalleled in our
history.

“On Sunday, May 29, we will
pause at the Community Park and
remember the 15,000 allied casualties,
2,500 killed in action, 5,000
wounded in action, and the 7,500
who suffered severe frostbite and
cold injuries while fighting what
historians have called one of the
‘most savage battles in modern
warfare,’” said committee representative
Tish Ferguson.

“The parade committee hopes
the citizens of Point Pleasant and in
the surrounding communities will
join this solemn but beautiful occasion
to honor these brave men
whose life experiences remind us
that ‘Freedom is not free,’” she
added.

While accepting the Grand
Marshal invitation on behalf of the
"Chosin Few," New Jersey Chapter
President Michael Sheehan of
Manasquan explained the meaning
of this survivor group in this way,
"Point Pleasant is really honoring
those we left behind — Those were
the "Chosin" and we, the survivors,
are the "Chosin Few".

Other local residents who are
survivors of this incredible battle
will join Mr. Sheehan at the parade.
Among those who are confirmed to
participate are former mayor and
past grand marshal - Peter Marone
[US Army -3rd Infantry Division's
50th Anti-Aircraft Artillery
Battalion] of Point Pleasant and
Dan Sharkey [USMC - 1st Marine
Division] of Point Pleasant Beach
and Dover Township. All members of the "Chosin
Few" are welcome to participate.

Contact Chosinfewnj@aol.com or
Tish Ferguson, Parade Committee
Member at (732) 714-8483.

What's your neighbor or uncle's story? Take the time to ask them!

Best regards,
TishTrek

Connie Vuocolo: a giant who left too soon

2010-08-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Conrad (Connie) Vuocolo was an engineer with the NJ Turnpike Authority and he owned and operated a body shop and gas station on Route 35 South in Pt. Pleasant Beach.

We grew up in the same community. Years later, he and my dad would work together on the Turnpike. Connie Vuocolo was a proud Elk first,(NJ Lodge #1608), a tireless volunteer, a civic leader who cared enough about issues to run for local office; and he was a man who dedicated much of his life to veterans causes.

When he passed away in October - 2007, I sent a letter to the editor @ The Ocean Star newspaper in Ocean County, New Jersey. Below is a copy of what was published on Friday, October 19th, 2007.

You see... In the end, I loved Connie like a brother and revered him as my friend because for thirty years - I never had to let a parade pass me by.

What would people who touch your life write about you? - Tish

----- Original Message -----
From: Tish Ferguson
To: editor@theoceanstar.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 3:39 AM
Subject: Conrad Vuocolo - The Quiet Acts of a Giant.

Dear Editor,

In 1979 - our friend - the late Conrad Vuocolo, who died too soon this week on October 15th, offered to lend me and a group of cousins his flatbed truck when we signed up to compete in our first Lion's Club Inner Tube Race. Because of Conrad's generosity, friends, family and neighbors would participate by building ten more floats over the next decade for this glorious event that the late Gene Bissey and other local icons transformed into a fesitival for all seasons - a result brought on by the energy of gregarious and positive men who honored all of us by simply sharing their love of life and humor with the community.

For those of us in mourning this week, we find comfort in knowing that Conrad Vuocolo was another one of those larger-than-life characters whose high voltage tactics managed to leave the masses laughing in the aisles during good times and bad. His generosity, wicked humor and giant heart livened up community events and always inspired spontaneous fun including weekend festivals that turned backyards and driveways into the kind of gathering posts that were reminicent of nostalgic reunions of times gone by. It's hard to imagine how a group of people could laugh harder than we did at our first few float festivals especially since we could count on Conrad to laugh the loudest at the expense of most of us who were present.

Our last legitimate parade entry in an Inner Tube Race would be September, 1991, but Conrad would later revive the excitement of these experiences by introducing children of all ages to the wonders of the motorized float at the Pt. Pleasant Halloween Parade, Memorial Day Parade, Pt. Beach Homecoming and the Panther Football Spirit Parades. There could be no motorized float without Conrad sitting in the driver's seat of his All-American Towing trucks every single time.

Each year Conrad would shout that caller ID or changing his phone number could save him from the perils of this repeat request. But don't be fooled, he smiled wryly over the years as no less than hundreds of local children leaped onto his flatbeds dressed as cheerleaders, sports figures, 101 Dalmations, Cruella Deville, dog catchers, characters from their favorite books, leprechauns, the ghosts of Y2K, pirates and princesses of the Caribbean, Lucille Ball, and members of the Brady Bunch too. We had so much fun!

Conrad, who is a member of the Pt. Pleasant Elks, would have denied it, but during last year's 2006 Chamber of Commerce Halloween Parade, several of us observed the emotion and pride shining in his eyes as he drove and escorted our 25th and final float down Bridge Avenue. This fun-loving small town hero drove 70 costumed kids and a few crazy adults right into the arms of their final first place trophy. The Nick@Nite and TV Land themes created a wonderful ending to an awesome journey that began for a small group of us on the streets of this incredible town thirty years ago. The entire day was an upbeat and unbelieveable experience!

This week, the only thing that's unbelieveable is that one of our down-home good guys is now gone. Conrad Vuocolo made a difference in the lives of kids and in our community by simply showing up and being himself. I know for a fact, that he enjoyed escorting children, football supporters, friends and especially veterans in any local parade. This Halloween, I ask all those kids and adults who ever travelled on one of the All-American Towing Trucks during a parade to take a moment to laugh aloud over something that pleases you.

A smile or a hardy laugh is the perfect way to honor the memory of this humble man with a sense of humor who was a friend to more people than anyone can imagine. We offer our deepest respect and condolences to Conrad's wonderful parents and to the entire Vuocolo Family at this difficult time.

Respectfully submitted,
Tish Ferguson
Pt. Pleasant, NJ

What inspired you during your interview?

2010-08-06T21:17:00.001-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

If that moment in your life arrives when some organization asks you to help them build a private bank from the ground up or to participate in transforming the way a business is executed on the planet, I say to all employment candidates - your moment has most certainly arrived. Run, don't walk and no looking back! www.morganstanley.com / Careers - eoe/m/f/d/v.

Okay. Run or walk, but be sure to side-step the fallen branches across sidewalks!

Best regards,
Tish

Hey Mommy, how was your commute today?

2010-08-04T20:41:00.001-07:00

If you are in favor of the 13-story mosque @ Ground Zero, you can skip this post. - Tish

February 26th 1993, 9/11 and the bombings in London (while vacationing with my husband) in 2007 changed my life & thinking forever, (i.e. Embrace the wonderment of everyday because it could be your last). Some of my earlier posts captured those experiences, but this is what's on my mind today:

For years, on my way to work @ my job at ADP Brokerage Services Group I literally walked past the make-shift mosque one floor up from the Chinese restaurant in Journal Square, Jersey City as I headed to-and-from the NJ Path Train station. This mosque was used as a camouflaged safe house by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to inspire young men - who worshipped HIM daily - to want to murder all of us.

During many morning commutes, the blind Sheik sat a mere arms-length from me on the wall in the open Square surrounded by dozens of these young adoring followers dressed in traditional white garb as they waited for others to arrive by Path Train.

In 1993, they blew a 10-story gaping hole inside the World Trade Center using a bomb placed in a U-Haul truck they had rented from a gas station at the foot of the Bayonne Bridge in New Jersey. Only 6 dead & 1,042 injured, so they vowed to come again. On September 11th, 2001 - others finished the job.

This week, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to put a 13-story mega-mosque-monument at the foot of that place where 9/11 hijackers murdered nearly 3,000 of my fellow commuters. Muslims aren't destroying America. Our blood drips from the hands of the self-absorbed children of the Greatest Generation whose attack on our country from within is fueled by their devotion to insane political correctness run amok.

- Make no mistake, I respect all religions and I have a long past performance history of embracing diversity in all its forms. I could not succeed in my work or life if this was not the case. Having said that, I vote they build a mosque - the same 13-story mosque - build it anywhere, but no - not there. Not here - not in the shadow of Ground Zero.

The 9/11 Families and the eye witnesses of this tragedy and enormity of horror have no chance of ever fully recovering from this day until the day we die, so we can't allow people - who defy transparency from around the globe - to use this sacred ground to mock us with grandeur.

My prayer for the next generation is that they can commute to their jobs in peace and always make it home to their kids.

"Hey Mommy, how was your commute today?"

"It went great, but I hope you know how happy I am to be home with you!"

"Now - Which is it: Chinese food or Pizza Express?"

Respectfully submitted,
Tish

PS - That Terrorist Attack Everyone Forgot: And who was the Mastermind - Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman from that make-shift mosque in Jersey City - (I'll never forget. - Tish)

From Wikipedia

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device[1] was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people.[2][3] It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042.

The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb

Join the Beating Heart inside our Nat'l Sales Organization!

2010-08-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

Help Wanted:

Financial Reporting Analyst needed for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's Sales & Marketing Strategy Organization in Charlotte, NC. This team is the beating heart inside our National Sales Organization!

Over 18,100 Financial Advisors & 130 Private Banker new hires need your analysis, metrics, assessments, and business intelligence to chart their course to WIN! Send your resume to patricia.ferguson@morganstanley.com - www.morganstanley.com / Careers
eoe/m/f/d/v.

Apply today. Tell friends!

Tell friends about this one too:

WANTED: Commercial Banking & Lending Manager for Morgan Stanley Private Bank, N.A. to support those repeat HNW clients whose hard work produces revenues between $10MM - $500MM each year. If you're the expert in Lines of Credit, Term Loans, Owner Occupied Real Estate & Standby Letters of Credit that I'm looking for, send resume to: patricia.ferguson@morganstanley.com!! Act Now @ www.morganstanley.com / Careers
eoe/m/f/d/v.

Ask yourself these questions to figure out if you should apply:

1) Have you been responsible for New Business Development or Account Management of Middle Market Business Clients? What was your company's definition of a Middle Market Client?

2) Have you managed the development and delivery of products and/or functionality to enhance revenues or create efficiencies for the benefit of clients in this market?

3) Have you held positions where you were responsible for assessing Target Market Exposure or Risk?

4) Force rank your expertise in the following areas: Relationship Management, Originations, Underwriting, Portfolio Management, Loan Servicing, Funding Disbursements, and Payments.

5) Are you a HUNTER (New Business Development Expert) or a FARMER (Manage Client Relationships closed by others, identify and execute ADD-ON Sales Opportunities & manage on-going Customer Support & Service.

6) Have you managed a Commercial Lending Function in the past? YES / NO - How many years?

If you answered 60% of these questions with confidence, you should apply. We'll call this tonight's 60/40 Approach! If you only fit 40% of this profile, watch for other opportunities.

Good luck! Keep watching our job boards!

Best regards,
Tish
914-225-8832

With Thanks to our "Wizard of Oz": Dr. Mehmet Oz

2010-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

During Lent for 15 years, our family (8 kids & 2 parents) gave up watching television during that season of 40 days & 40 nights leading up to Easter Sunday which forced us - of all things - to spend time playing board games, (no video games folks!), reading books and talking to each other! (My parents were clever, huh?) Anyway...

Every year, we were ONLY allowed to watch ONE TV program and that was the yearly repeat production of the Wizard of Oz. It was awesome! My Dad's Jersey City St. Peter's Prep High School friend and teammate, Bobby Bratton, would join us with his family - Mrs. Bratton, Maureen, Deirdra, and MY Timmy - one single Sunday every Lenten Season to watch Judy Garland & the Wizard of Oz crowd do their flying house routine on our first color TV, (PS - this is a true story...)

Forty years later... and it all comes full circle:

This week, a Harvard educated great guy named, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and his Team saved MY Mrs. Bratton's life @ Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Some weeks do not get better than this.

If you need Heart Valve Replacement, you don't have to be afraid if Dr. Oz is with you. Mrs. "B" went into surgery a few days ago and I had confidence in the outcome because I knew she was wearing the same Ruby Red Slippers we had watched for 15 years during the Lenten Season. Only this time, God clicked his heels so the sparkle of the slippers could light the way as Mrs. "B" made her way back home to Pt. Pleasant Beach. OMGosh - It worked! - Amen.

Just me @ TishTrek :)

Securities Based Lending Head: IS IT YOU?!

2010-07-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

HELP WANTED: Executive Director, Securities Based Lending to DRIVE the management, P & L, and growth of the Securities Backed Lending Program inside Morgan Stanley's NEW Private Bank. Are you ready to leverage your experience & skills to develop "White Board-to-Execution" programs that support Financial Advisors as they work to increase Securities Backed Lending penetration across the United States? Call my cell @ 732-259-2780 or apply on-line @ www.morganstanley.com / Careers - JOB ID# 70968. EOE/M/F/D/V.

So - you ask - who am I actually looking for and what kind of experiences and/or background will it take land an interview with the Executive Management Team doing the hiring for this GREAT POSITION?

Are you currently Head of Large & Structured Transactions or Head of Securities Backed Lending to support the High Net Worth clients in your current company?

Could this job be for you?

- Have you been responsible for the management, P & L, and growth of your company's Securities Backed Lending Programs (Reg T, Reg U & Letters of Credit)and are you in charge of developing Lending Offerings for Ultra High Net Worth & HNW Clients?

- Have you established new compensation methods for Financial Advisors to increase Securities Backed Lending penetration and established key metrics for monitoring the success of such program?

- Earlier in your career, did you successfully negotiate, structure and close transactions with total credit facilities in excess of $200 million?

- Have you been there, done it, and delivered successes in the SBL space throughout your career which gives you the unique experience to establish High Net Worth/Ultra High Net Worth lending strategy for one of the world's leading companies?

- Have you ever advised key clients/prospects on lending solutions - regardless of asset class - which may have included, but was not limited to, alternative investments, operating units, equity collars, unsecured, and single stock (control and/or unrestricted)? Have the loans been underwritten based on borrower, their capacity, collateral and purpose of the facility?

- Have the loan sizes been in excess of $100 million?

- Have you authorized and coordinated the distribution, marketing and positioning of securities backed loans to clients and Financial Advisors?

- Have you been responsible for end-to-end product management of lending programs including underwriting, technology related interfaces, pricing, and product management?

- Have you introduced new pricing strategies by client type which resulted in a significant increase of lending balances in the HNW client segment?

- Have you been in charge of overseeing client spread management which helped baseline client rates with the credit marketplace?

- Have you ever introduced new preferred rate exception processes to streamline process and ensure proper governance?

- Have you ever introduced new loan origination tools, technologies or methodologies and/or collateral evaluation engines to streamline lending processes and/or to enhance the client experience?

- Are you the one accountable for the functional responsibility for Lending Products?

- Have you managed and developed a staff of product and credit specialists which helped propel your company forward?

If you have been accountable for 70% of the responsibilities listed above, I want to know you! Call my cell @ 732-259-2780 or apply on-line @ www.morganstanley.com to JOB ID# 70968. The job is currently listed as Retail Banking - Securities Based Lending - Executive Director. The New York Federal Reserve just approved Morgan Stanley's application to become a Private Bank on July 1st, 2010, so away we go...
I hope you'll join us.

Good luck in our recruiting process if this job compliments your background!

Best regards,
Tish