Francis Kenneth Wolfe – 50th Reunion Essay

Francis Kenneth Wolfe

4850 Osprey Dr. S #606

St. Petersburg, FL 33711

wolfeak@aol.com

727-865-2032

Spouse(s): Annemarie Wolfe

Education: Yale, BA 1969; NYU, M.B.A 1976

National Service: US Army Reserves, 1969–1975

Career: Forty years as an executive in the consumer catalog and e-commerce business

College: Saybrook

I have been fortunate that my business career provided me with jobs that had me working in many parts of the world including Europe, Latin America, and Asia in addition to the US. That has given me an array of great experiences working with people of many nationalities with different work cultures and lifestyles.

Of all these parts of the world, I spent the most time outside the US in the UK. While I did major in British History at Yale, I never had a plan to live and work there. But because of job opportunities that were a surprise, I ended up spending 13 years living and working there and was fortunate to meet and marry my British wife Annemarie in London.

The Yale Club of London provided a treasure trove of social and cultural events during those years. Some examples were: a dinner at the House of Commons Dining Room with Kingman Brewster as the featured speaker, days at the Henley Regatta including one when the Yale crew won one of the major cups, and dinners with talks by actors and entertainers (e.g., Glenda Jackson).

I also had the opportunity to attend many interesting events in other countries. One example was the Davis Cup match between the US and Argentina in Buenos Aires in 1983. The US lost on very slow clay courts, but it was fun watching Arthur Ashe as Captain trying to control the behavior of John McEnroe.

My career in international business raised many interesting questions. I will mention three examples here:

How could Chinese suppliers who had just come out from under Mao’s communist regime be already so commercially astute in the early 1980s?

How could the European Mediterranean countries be so relaxed about tax regulations and so strict about labor laws?

How could a US multinational company’s management create a win/win partnership with its Latin American subsidiaries where the local management teams had ambivalent attitudes about the US?

Answering these questions (and many more) helped me grow as an executive and as a person. The key was keeping an open mind and understanding the local situation when looking for answers. As I look back, my Yale education both inside and outside the classroom helped me develop the broader perspective and critical thinking skills that I needed to answer these questions.

In my current job as director of a lifelong learning group at Eckerd College, I help teach college students. Like Yale, Eckerd believes in the value of a liberal arts education. In the classroom I pass along the lessons that I have learned with the goal of broadening students’ perspectives and helping them develop critical thinking skills.

Thank you to Yale for a great education that has served me well!