
Mr. Michael Heartsong has an extensive background in management and finance. He is uniquely qualified to be leading the organizational development and forward motion of the Company. He has been involved, either as a consultant or principal, in six start-up ventures, two of which are still in operation twenty years later. As a management consultant, he specialized in helping his clients become more efficient, more productive, and more profitable, with higher employee morale. He has well-above-average team-building and project management skills. He has an extraordinary ability to remain focused, and keep others focused and moving forward toward a shared goal. The scientific community contains many extremely bright, talented and able people each of whom has formed very strong opinions about the best way to accomplish things in his or her area of expertise. The Company has already experienced this phenomena with regard to its plans to mine asteroids and Copyright © 2009 by Promethean Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved 31 White Paper v 5.3 build vast solar-energy gathering arrays. Building a cohesive team of highly talented, opinionated people will be one of the challenges facing the Company. Mr. Heartsong's skills and personality uniquely equip him for this task. Mr. Heartsong readily admits he has almost no prior experience in scientific matters, and even less involvement, before now, in deep space exploration. But what he may lack in those areas, he makes up for many times over, with the leadership, management, and practical skills he brings to the Company. The Company believes one of his great strengths (not weaknesses) is that neither he nor the Company has any extensive prior involvement in space exploration. Consequently, they are neutral. The Company has no prior or hidden agenda. The Company's only priority is to find the best, most effective way to accomplish its objectives, regardless of where the solutions come from. There are many instances in which a company's founders had little or no technical knowledge or skills (Microsoft and Apple are two notable examples). A winning formula has often been a "partnership" between highly gifted technical people, and a brilliant, effective management team. It is often said that "the Devil is in the details." Mr. Heartsong disagrees. With how much enthusiasm will an average person approach some place where the Devil resides? Not much. Mr. Heartsong believes a more truthful statement is, "God is in the details" because only by paying close attention to the details, can one hope to achieve one's ultimate objectives or "God". The world is filled with people who are capable of attending to details. There are many fewer people capable of holding a large vision of something that does not yet exist. And there are even fewer people who are capable of holding a clear vision of an imagined future and simultaneously focusing on, and attending to, the details necessary to ensure that the future vision will become a reality. Mr. Heartsong is such a person. His skill and ability to do this will be absolutely vital to the success of the Company's endeavors. Mr. Heartsong's father and grandfather were engineers. Mr. Heartsong always assumed he would become an engineer as well. While in high school, he got certified by the RCA Home Study Institute as a Radio and TV Repair Technician. During his first year of college, he pursued a degree in engineering, then switched to Physics, and eventually obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Amherst College. He graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He pursued graduate studies in Philosophy at Oxford Copyright © 2009 by Promethean Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved 32 White Paper v 5.3 University, before becoming involved in the film industry. [He jokes that this is a progression--engineering, physics, philosophy, film industry--that anyone could have predicted!] For more than twenty-five years, he has pursued a dual career path, as a cameraman in the film business, and as a management consultant. He is a member of MENSA, the "genius society". Mr. Heartsong brings to the Company a “where-the-tire-meets-the-road” practicality. He is someone who gets things done.
Recent Comments