This led to a 36-year career at TRW Inc. Most recently I was the Director, Technical Development for the TRW Corporation with responsibility for university and professional relations, university grants from the TRW Foundation, and technical personnel development for the $17B company. I have been active in university and educational affairs as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for the Master of Engineering program at Case Western Reserve University, the Industrial Advisory Board for the School of Engineering at the University of Illinois, and the Management Board of the Ohio Math and Science Coalition.
Prior to accepting my TRW Corporate Headquarters assignment, I was Vice President for Business Development and Group Development over a 9-year period for the Space & Electronics group of the company. In this role, I managed development of the group’s strategic technology plan and the tactical application of the technology R&D resources to achieve that plan. These efforts involved funding the engineering organizations to develop a leading technology position in space systems, electronic spacecraft payloads, aircraft avionics, advanced semi-conductors, and high-energy laser systems. The technology development plans included assessing and determining the best place to conduct the R&D work: universities, in-house at TRW, or a combination of both.
Upon retiring from TRW, I joined Loyola Marymount University and their College of Engineering. There, as a Graduate Director, I was able to help design and launch the Systems Engineering Leadership Program, starting in 2002. I director this master’s degree leadership program which uses LMU’s strengths to meet industry’s needs for broad-based systems engineering education. We've got 50 students enrolled and continuing to grow. I don't teach per se; I guide the program and am the advisor for the students doing a thesis-like final project. I enjoy the heck out of it.
UPDATE: Not a whole lot has changed for me in the last few years. Professionally, I'm still the Graduate Director of the Systems Engineering Leadership Program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I was brought to LMU to start the program in 2002 - hard to believe I've been doing this for 11 years now. The program is not large, but it's healthy even though our enrollment from the aerospace/defense industry has dropped noticeably in the past couple of years. We're running at about 55 active students on a steady basis. We've done some innovative things to allow the graduate education to serve a broad population of interests. One area in which we at LMU are particularly strong is Lean Systems Engineering and Lean Program Management. We've even received some international awards for our faculty's work. We've just expanded our Lean capabilities into the healthcare industry with a pending graduate program in Lean Healthcare. It will start in Fall of 2013.
On the personal side, my wife and I spend a fair amount of time in the Phoenix, AZ, area. We've got a place there to get away from LA and to visit our only grandkids (twin boys, now 2.5) in central Phoenix. I will say that all aspects of life are just easier in Phoenix than in LA.
My health is pretty good and my golf game is not.
After finishing up my Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1967, I completed two years of post-doctoral research at UCLA. at this time, I was also part of TRW in their Biosciences Department, conducting R&D on prospective extraterrestrial life detection techniques.
Telephone:
(310) 338-7878
Email:
fbrown@lmu.edu