ExecutiveDevelopmentBlog

Here are a few curious facts about me that probably won’t come up in a professional context…

MUSIC

I spend a fair amount of my time when I am not working at the Carlson School, engaged in my personal passion: music composition.  I am a largely self-taught composer, creating music for chamber groups, chorus, and orchestra.

I have had a few pieces performed publicly, but am currently focused on creating mock-ups of my music using the tools that have become available through technology.  You can listen to a few of my compositions on my music website:  https://sites.google.com/site/marksrecitals/.  One of my compositions, a solo for flute in the baroque style, was performed by a flutist from the Edmonton Symphony and appeared on a CD entitled,  ”Brief Confessions.”  I recently had a recital of two new works for piano and soprano–check them out on my recital website.

My musical interests started in fourth grade, when I learned to play the trumpet. I continued to play the trumpet through junior high, as second chair in the band.  I tried for awhile to play in the orchestra, but the trumpet stands out more in the orchestra, making it pretty obvious when you make mistakes!

I continued my musical interest in high school, as the lead singer in a “new wave” band named “The Particles.”  We played the Minneapolis musc scene in the same venues as then big-time acts, the Replacements, the Suburbs, and Prince.  The bassist from our group, John Munson, went on to multi-platinum album fame with a group named “Semisonic.”  You probably have heard their big hit, “Closing Time…you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here…”  Everybody had heard it, since it received wall-to-wall radioplay. a number of years ago. 

FILM

I have had a long-time interest in filmmaking.  In high school, I co-produced an award-winning film documenting the history of Hopkins, MN. Later, in college, I became President of the Columbia University Filmmakers Society.  A friend of mine and co-producer of the high school film, Kurtis Fechtmeyer, later founded Wildcat Films and asked me to serve on the board.  The company produced one multimillion dollar feature length film starring Peter Falk.  You have probably never heard of this film (and won’t find much evidence of its existence on the web) because it was co-produced with FujiTV to run as a movie of the week on Japanese television.  Peter Falk, who was orchestrating a comeback of the Columbo character, did not want the film being distributed outside of Japan because it would interfere with his Columbo character.  It was actually specified in the contract that he could not wear a trenchcoat or carry a cigar.  So, he wore an overcoat instead, and did his smoking off camera. I met him briefly on set one day while shooting a scene in a police precinct.

Ultimately, our film aspirations were cut short due to cashflow problems and many of the difficulties you would expect to be associated with trying to make a business successful in Hollywood.  It was a great ride, though, and our company dealt with many players who have gone on to great success.  One of the writers on an unproduced property we were developing, David Koepp, later went on to write screenplays that were produced: “Jurrasic Park”, “Spiderman,” and most recently, “Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull.”  As an outside director of the board, my involvement was mostly on the business end of things, but I did get the chance to meet some interesting characters and attend a few Hollywood parties. 

While my film aspirations did not fully develop into blockbuster success, I did have the chance to work with a blockbuster film star: Bruce Willis.  While in college, I worked off and on as a barback (glorified busboy who stocks the bar and clears glasses) for a couple of nightclubs in the Times Square area of New York City.  One of the friendliest and nicest bartenders was a guy named Bruno.  Like all New York bartenders, working there was just something he did while waiting for his big break as an actor.  The summer after I moved from New York I learned that Bruno had finally gotten his break on a show called Moonlighting.  And, he had changed his name to Bruce Willis.

INVENTION

I hold a US patent for a device designed to store and dispense disposable cup lids (you can see the patent application here: Lid patent ).  It was a lot of fun designing the product, but I learned many good lessons the hard way while trying to bring this product to market.  Customers loved it, but there was ultimately not enough cash to make it happen.  I still believe that a product like this is much needed!

SHIPPING

When in college, I had the unique opportunity to serve as an officer cadet in the Greek Merchant Marine.  This was a brief, but educational experience.  The crew and officers spoke almost no english, and this was a great opportunity to brush up on my Greek.  I spent the summer aboard two ships, the Desert King and the Bulk Venturer.  These ships were both similar to the one pictured here. I signed up with the ship in New Orleans, we went to Corpus Cristi, TX where we loaded up with grain. From there, we headed off for 21 days on the high seas to Lagos, Nigeria. 

The first thing I learned aboard the ship was that being on the high seas aboard a cargo ship does not mean that the workload is reduced. In fact, we had hard manual labor 7-days a week aboard the ships, with 12-hour days.  When we docked in Lagos, we unloaded the grain and proceeded to Point Noire in the Republique du Congo.  Things were quite different there back then, and the Conogo was a garden spot in comparison to Lagos.  Anyway, from there it was on to Bologne, France, back to the US to Mobile Alabama, and ultimately from there to Greece.  When I arrived in Greece, I was very happy to take some vacation time! 

MORE NAVAL HISTORY

Perhaps the sea has always been in my blood, as I have a Greek ancestor who was a famour naval hero in world war II.  Vasileios Laskos, commander of the submarine Katsonis, went down at the helm of his ship fighting the nazis.  There is a book written about his life, a statue in his honor, and many of his naval artificats are on display in a nautical museum in Greece. 

Here is an excerpt from the last interview (1995) given by the submarine’s caprtain, who served alongside Laskos:

“Laskos was a brave man. Katsonis men literally addored him & carried out his orders blindly. Once, one of his junior officers had a nervous break down & tried to sabotage the ship. Thank God, he didn’t succeed in doing so. I placed him under arrest & while I was filling up the papers for court marshal, Laskos came in. He ordered me not to report the incident & asked me to lead this officer at his quarters. They remained there talking for about one, one and a half hours. What was their conversation about, I never managed to find out. When this officer though, left the captain’s quarters, he was ready not only to fight again, but to volunteer for the commandos! Later, during the Katsonis final battle, he was killed next to our beloved Cdr. That kind of influence Laskos exercised on his men.”

-Please sir, describe Katsonis final battle

“Well, while we were patroling the Skiathos straights, we received a signal saying that a large German troop transporter was about to reach us. The sub was very old & we couldn’t stay submurged for long. So, we had to stay on surface for a long time. This had the result of us being spotted by a German observation station at Trikeri island. Suddenly we spotted over the periscope a large ship coming on us. We thought it was the troop ship. Instead of the transporter though, it was a German Sub chaser (a corvette I think), which started immediately launching depth charges. As I said, the ship was old & couldn’t last submurged for long. Laskos did not hesitate, never crossed his mind the possibility of surrender: “To the surface…Prepare for surface battle” he ordered. Soon, Katsonis was on the surface. The German ship, started firing on us with her guns. A gun shell, cut off the gunner’s foot.
Laskos, immediately took his place on the gun. There, uncovered, was trying to give us courage, when suddenly, an enemy shell killed him, granting him a long wished and proud death.”