John O’Neil
Director
San Francisco, US

“After a career that included managing new systems development at AT&T, venture capital, and heading a four-campus graduate school, I decided to get serious. This took the form of creating a “portfolio life” (Charles Handy’s remarkable concept). For the past dozen years my “portfolio” has included:

• Advising leaders around the world on how to match strategy with proper talent.
• Writing three books, the most notable being Paradox of Success in 1993, which was reissued a decade later by Putnam as a book that had “withstood the test of time.”
• Helping entrepreneurs and funders with startups and restarts.  (This is highly creative stuff and one of my primary interests as a Sage partner.)
• Serving on foundation boards that match my public service interests (currently Tide and Noyce).
• Serving on exciting, high-leverage company boards (currently Threshold Group and Qube Learning).
• Advising a select list of clients for whom my current work, thinking and writing are useful in helping fulfill their missions and clarify their visions.  Recent collaborations have included DeutschePost—DHL (with Yury Boshyk leading the charge), National Bureau of Asian Research, Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum, Sojourners, CirclePoint, Gryphon Investors, Contax, Posit Science Corporation, and LookSmart.

“Finally, I’m reminded of what Sam Goldwyn said after he talked non-stop about himself in an interview, “Well, enough about me – let’s talk about my latest movie.” So I’ll conclude by mentioning my book-in-progress on the subject of learning and change. Most of my life’s work has tied to my fascination with learning. And learning is what drew me to Sage Partners.”