A bit about me by Karl Wabst

Readers, Visitors, Friends, Prospective, Current and Former Clients,

I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and provide some public information about me that should allow you to understand some important things about my background and the experiences that form the basis for my opinions and approach to topics discussed in this blog.

Career Focus:

My focus is on organizational leadership; vision & strategy, setting direction, aligning & motivating people, helping corporations to cope with change by creating a sense of urgency and a corporate learning culture. Lead on cultural, legal & strategic business issues in an increasingly competitive & volatile global economy.

Economic, Privacy, Security, Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery events provided experience to create a methodology that integrates corporate governance, business, legal, privacy, information technology security and audit.

Leadership

I hold an MBA with a focus on Organizational Leadership. My undergrad degree is in Social Sciences, focused on behavioral psychology and work with human subjects. I also hold multiple certifications in Privacy, Audit and Security as a result of creating strategy & directing tactics to legitimately use data in ways that forge better customer relationships, protect corporate assets and bridge International and US business customs, laws and regulations.

Do not let the job titles in my Career Summary fool you. My career has provided significant exposure to multiple disciplines:

• International Business
• Finance and Credit Management
• Leadership and Management
• Legal and Regulatory
• Consumer and Customer Advocacy
• Teaching / Training:
  • Information Privacy
  • Align Technology & Corporate Strategy
  • Audit
  • Security
  • Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery

  The first half of my career was spent on Wall Street, not as a trader but in International finance and credit. The lessons I learned set me on a path to become an author and work with multinationals across the US, in Asia and the EU in business, technical, and legal disciplines, and in many industries and markets.

Setting Direction

Before you get the wrong idea – I am not a credit manager, project manager, security, audit or disaster recovery manager, but I have been all of those while helping firms respond and plan for increasing political, economic, social, legal and technical changes.

Change is always accompanied by both risk and opportunity. I can attest that change – especially big, imposed change that seems out of your control – can be terrifying.

Strong corporate and personal leadership is required to plan for the long term, but especially in volatile times. I utilize leadership frameworks including those from John Kotter, Black & Gregersen and Kubler-Ross to prepare organizations for change, and help them as they struggle through to recognize opportunity, avoid risk while respecting the information entrusted to them by customers, employees and partners.

Savage Hun

I also had a part as an extra (member of the Savage Huns gang) in the crowd scene at the beginning of the cult movie classic The Warriors, now a video game, and I understand soon to be yet another big screen remake. I wonder if it will be in 3-D.