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Florence Alberts--Business from many angles
George Leonard--Finding his balance in life
Florence Alberts--Business from many angles
In her career, Florence Alberts, longtime lecturer in the College of Business, has moved easily through the halls of academia, the corridors of government and the offices of the corporate world.
An economist by training, Alberts has found success in several arenas, and she is quick to share her knowledge with students at San Francisco State University.
Alberts first came to the Bay Area in 1975 when Bank of America hired her to join its team of international economists. Bank of America had been impressed by her master's degree work on the Marshall Plan in western Europe. She quickly grew to love the job.
"At BofA I was responsible for risk analysis and the global outlook," said Alberts. "I did analysis of the industrialized western European countries. Projection of trade, deficits, budgets, gross national product ... all of the various economic indicators from the countries in my area were brought together with the work of the other international economists to form the global outlook."
While working at Bank of America, Alberts earned a doctoral degree in economics at UC Berkeley and began teaching business courses at SFSU.
She has taught off and on at the University since the mid 1970s.
At first, she taught international business courses, but when she left Bank of America to work for the Small Business Administration (SBA), the branch of the government that supports and fosters the growth of small-scale entrepreneurial activity, she began teaching entrepreneurship courses as well.
Alberts is no stranger to the real world of entrepreneurship. She worked with her husband in his Asian import business, and in the late 80s decided to start a side project and bought a hotel in Vallejo.
"It was a great old hotel that was built in 1914," Alberts explains. "I renovated it to that period--adding a lot of art deco touches."
At first, Alberts thought she'd cater to the weekend getaway crowd, but she found that many of her clients were businesswomen.
"They didn't like to stay in chain hotels," she said. "They wanted a nicer, warmer environment."
Although she has since sold the hotel, Alberts continues to work with businesswomen as the national coordinator for the Women's Networking Roundtable, a program the SBA asked her to start in 1994.
"We began with just a few," she said, "but now there are 190 active roundtables nationwide. I travel to as many of them as I can and help them develop marketing and programming strategies."
With the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 90s, Alberts entered into a different phase in her career. She became part of the cadre of professionals who worked with east European countries to help them transition from a planned to a market economy.
Under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, she spent time in Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Alberts lectured on free market principles, developed courses on marketing principles and applications, and held workshops on starting a small business.
In Prague, she spent three months on a project that converted portions of the Letov Aircraft Factory into private companies and a business incubator.
"Because I was an economist who worked on western European countries, it was logical for me to go over to the eastern European countries," she said. "It was an exhilarating, pioneering experience -- the thrill of a lifetime"
Her work training former communists has continued here on campus with the Community Connections program. Working with the Office of International Programs, Alberts won a grant from the U.S. State Department that designates SFSU as a host to small business entrepreneurs and middle management professionals from Russia and the other republics in the Russian Federation.
Since 1998, more than 100 Russian citizens have spent three- or four-week internships with Bay Area firms that match their business interests. While here they also participate in professional training taught by Alberts.
"This program really raises the profile of the University in the local Russian-American community," said Alberts. "They appreciate that SFSU supports this program. Some of them have gone to SFSU, and many of them are involved in hosting interns in their home or business."
Her varied experiences leaves Alberts well situated to teach a seminar class on the business environment.
"We define the business environment as the world of business, government and society," she said. "I've been in all three. Business has to respond ethically and competitively to the impulses and changes within each sector."
Alberts also teaches an internship course for the Management Department.
"This course gives me a lot of pleasure because I enjoy meeting with the students and talking about how their internships are going," she said.
"These kids are going to do great in the business world. I'm really impressed because they are hard working. Some of them have gotten promotions this semester and some of them have already been offered permanent jobs."
--William Morris
George Leonard--Finding his balance in life
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The office in the Humanities building is not what one would expect for an SFSU professor and well-known author. A desk and computer are nowhere to be found. Instead, the office has a framed Taoist painting, comfortable leather loveseat, matching leather chair, cherry wood armoire, filing cabinet, teapot, microwave and telephone.
Not so surprising, however, are the many photos of George Leonard's colleagues, friends and family. These photos stir fond thoughts for him, especially when he talks about his 10-year-old son Andrew, who he may take on a cross-country road trip this summer.
Pictures of former students adorn the file cabinet. Student essays going back 15 years can be found inside the cabinet. He makes a point of memorizing each student's name, and many keep in touch long after graduation.
Leonard, an interdisciplinary humanities professor who began his teaching career at Yale in 1972, has a passion to help students realize their dreams, especially those who are struggling academically and those who are the first members of their families to attend college. He is always proud to share his vision of SFSU's mission with professors from Ivy League universities.
"We change blue collar to white collar, unemployed to employed, renter to homeowner, outside to insider, alienated to included," he tells them. "We build the basis for a civil society."
Leonard is an expert on Chinese culture and philosophy, the teacher of popular courses like The Humanities: Major Works and Human Mysticism, and former editor of the College of Humanities Magazine -- but like many SFSU faculty, that's only a fraction of his vita.
He also speaks seven languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Latin, Greek and Mandarin Chinese. He has written several novels, edited an award-winning reference book titled Asian Pacific Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts, and wrote Into the Light of Things, a well-regarded book on avant-garde art theory. He created the concepts and choreography of Sha Na Na, a popular 1950s-style band that played at Woodstock. Ron Howard, one of the hottest directors in Hollywood, purchased the screenplay and movie rights for The Ice Cathedral, Leonard's ultra-violent, lyric novel about a genius who kills hunters for sport.
"San Francisco State has a long history of colorful characters on the faculty, and George is one of them," said English Professor Jim Kohn, who has known him since 1986 when Leonard joined SFSU. "He is certainly one of the best assets of the campus."
Several years ago, Leonard was exclusively teaching graduate students and felt he had lost his inspiration for teaching. He was working on several screenplays, and the glamour and luxury of Hollywood were calling. He took a leave in 1996-97 and moved to China, his wife's homeland, where he hoped to rekindle his spirituality and determine the direction of his life.
Leonard's passion to teach was re-ignited during this time of thought and reflection. His father, a judge and a former lawyer for Robert Kennedy, had recently died and George felt a subconscious need to "pick up the torch." He thought about the time he yearned to teach in prisons after earning his doctorate in literature from Columbia University. Reminded of the wisdom of Confucius, he realized he could live a life that balances the financial security that Hollywood offers with his opportunities to change students' lives at SFSU.
"You need more than money in life; you need a meaningful life," he says. "Confucius said, 'Wealth and fame are what every man desires.' The moral question, for Confucius, isn't whether we want good things. Of course we do. But what are we willing to trade for them?"
Now Leonard is dedicated to teaching more than ever. In his computer-free office, students stop by not only to discuss coursework but also issues in their personal lives. He also cordially offers tea to all guests in his office.
When in the office alone, he enjoys gazing out the window, where he can see many trees and even a tiny portion of the Pacific Ocean. The loveseat folds out into a bed, where Leonard takes a 30-minute nap before his evening classes.
After class Leonard heads to his desk at home, where he often writes until 2:30 a.m.
He is in negotiations with University of Chicago Press, which published Into the Light of Things, to publish a new edition of The Ice Cathedral and two new books on mass culture.
Although it is unclear when Ron Howard will make a movie based on The Ice Cathedral, Leonard has high hopes and is ecstatic that good old Opie just won Best Director and Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind.
"It's like being on the Lakers with Kobe and Shaq, and dying to start in a game," says Leonard, who grew up in Long Island, N.Y., and now lives in Redwood City.
In the meantime, he will continue to do what he enjoys most: teach, write and spend time with his wife and son.
-- Matt Itelson
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Last modified March 1, 2002, by the Office of Public Affairs