Dr. Neil Hair

Over the course of my career I have had much occasion to celebrate good advice, mentoring, and friendship at the Saunders College of Business. I am especially grateful for all the help that Dr Stan Widrick has given me over the years. It is with huge sadness for the college, but happiness for both himself and Suzie that I report this mega marketing genius has retired. To celebrate his career and successes at guiding many a junior faculty member towards and through tenure my wife and I held a retirement party hosting 'Marketers' both past and present on Friday. As with any major change it brought with it plenty of naval gazing on my part about the changing nature of the college. Looking around I saw the old guard, Julian Yudelson, Pat Sorce, and Phil Tyler (apologies received from Gene Fram by the way who now spends most of his time on the West coast). The college was very different back in 1999 when I was first hired as a young whipper snapper. The internet for instance was causing all sorts of problems regards what courses would need to change (ie ALL OF THEM!), how pedagogy would evolve (ie COMPLETELY) and even whether or not the internet should be capitalized on syllabi (I MEAN COME ON PEOPLE?). Most faculty were still making use of transparencies – I digress – Julian then retired which was my first experience with change within the department. Soon after I left for the UK to complete my research training (PhD). Thankfully when I returned little had changed, Phil and Stan were still at the helm, Deb was relatively new to the scene, Gene was still in 5th gear, but Pat had left to head up a new Print school (still at RIT thankfully). Then in relatively quick succession it seemed we lost Gene, then Phil, and now Stan to the alluring promise of a grade free retirement. Change is upon us! Thankfully the college has made great hiring decisions, both in securing clinical and tenure track faculty. Looking around those marketers present you can't be anything other than equally excited about the quality of the new guard – just as collegial, a group where friendships meet professionally productive relationships – where friends also happen to be colleagues. We cant ask for much more and I am confident this crosses over into huge benefits for our students. All of this however keeps coming back to the impact of one person. Much of what we have to be thankful of resides in Stan's stewardship, first as department chair and then as senior associate dean. Without doubt therefore, Stan, you are an phonemenal mentor and good friend who deserves for sure, a most exceptional retirement! Thanks for all you have done mate.

I cant believe it – after 5 years together our best friends Vic and Millie have finally hooked up formally with Vic proposing over the weekend in PR whilst on holiday. Congratulations you two – our love, best wishes, and mean Mexican-Tinis be with you!! Whoa MILLEH MILLEH MILLEH MILLEH. Are we going to have some fun when you guys get back to Rochester

Today in the post I received my permanent resident card which officially makes me a green card holder. I must admit to you I sat at the table and my eyes started welling. Its a proud moment for me personally and for my family, to be permanent, accepted, and kind of adopted fixtures of this country. A dream truly realized to be honest. I also know that nothing will make us prouder than to apply for citizenship several years from now so that we will have what out little girl already has – citzenship from two great countries – to hold dual citizenship. In this modern age, America takes its fair share of flack from the rest of the world, to me though, it has always been and will always be my other home. I love it dearly. Today I get to call it permanent.

And so here it is – the most important news of my life so far. My daughter, Lillian Victoria Hair was born Friday 20th of February 2009 at 5.44pm weighing 8lbs 14 and stretching to a whopping 22.5 inches! Rose and Lillian are doing very well and I havent stopped smiling since the successful delivery on Friday. Highland hospital was quite frankly a WONDERFUL experience with great staff, nurses and doctors. I can also say the the whole delivery experience is the most frightening and wonderful thing anyone one can ever go through. Rose you are without doubt my hero for life and thank you so much for our beautiful daughter, looking forward to the ride of my life.  

OK, right at the start of the entry I want to make one thing absolutely clear. I had permission from my wife from the get go and we were several hours away from delivery (honest!). OK. So – its official I LOVE technology. To cut a very long story and even longer process shorter – we went into hospital on Wednesday night as soon as I finished my last undergraduate class (an amazing one with some great people in it at that). Thursday was my last taugh class for my MBA's and with it being week ten the materials were rather essential. So, what to do. I called on the help of two previous online learners of mine – Ashley and Kate – to help me set up class virtually. Everything was in place by 5.45pm and we were ready to go by 6pm despite being ten miles away and kind of tied up with my wife showing very early signs of labor. So this is how it worked. We managed to pull off a whole session using my office hours Adobe Connect Meeting room, I presented my slides and debriefed class as I usually do, with a two way camera conference call complete with text chat for questions and URL links. Despite a few audio glitches their end the session went really well. I took questions over the phone in our delivery room, my wife waved enthusiastically at the crowd (this proved popular!) and we managed to complete class without incident (including the wife going into full labor – that happened a few hours later and Id like to think my lecturing skills had nothing to do with it!). Amusing, whilst I was lecturing, I had three resident nurses come in to see what was going on (seems the news we were lecturing in the room spread pretty quickly), Roses Doctor, and then two OB residents! I can tell you honestly that this proved to be one of the most distracting teaching situations I think Ive ever been in!! But I persevered and it went well – lots of interaction as usual with me asking class questions and then calling on individuals to provide answers. Overall I was really pleased to be part of that experience, my class was fantastic – motivated as usual and seemed to enjoy it all. Amusingly, last night I saw one of our nurses who stopped me and affirmed one of the comments I had made in my lecture to class – 'youre right Neil, there really is only one best way to make money, have more than one job!' She also confirmed that she'd really enjoyed the lecture of course – I also recorded it for my students

Thanks connect, class, Rose and of course little Lillian who is now the most important student to me in the world.

What would we do without the internet? We live in super connected times that enable us to reach everyone in our networks even if we live overseas. As usual I'll connect tomorrow with family and friends that I cant be with personally in a number of ways. I'll update my twitter and facebook profile status using digsby. I'll put skype calls through to family that dont have internet access. I'll video conference those that do. I'll watch the Queens speech at 3pm GMT (10am EST) using my sling media box which controls my UK cable TV connection. I might even throw out a few SMS's to people I know are traveling. Heck I might even track Santa's return home. Got to love the internet – keeping people connected in the Hair household since 1995.

Every once in a while I engage in one of my favourite past times (researching new beers) and every once in a blue moon I come across a beer that I adore. This is my ode to Southern Tiers Pumking beer. It is in short – fabulous. Southern Tier have a reputation for making very tasty beers – a few to note include the Unearthly (VERY hoppy) Cheery Saison (VERY cherry), Creme Brulee (VERY ok you get the point) and Jav*ha varieties. This seasonal beer however tops all of the above. In fact Id go as far to say that it is every bit as good as my all time favourite beer The Blandford Fly (not available in the US fortunately for my wallet).  So – marketing angle – one of the best stites Ive come across from the brewery itself http://www.southerntierbrewing.com/. Whats missing from it though are all the links to the various beer evaluation sites out there. In other words – a failure to communicate the outstanding record this company has for making beer amongst its converted. Be wary of these beers however, theyre very strong and thats exactly what makes one of these perfect for a cold Autumn night holed up with the pregnant wife and two cats.

Two things went through my mind earlier today when one of the techies called out to me as I passed their cave. 1. Why? and 2. Why the big smile on his face when doing so? The answer is perhaps best explained by two photographs attached for your viewing pleasure. People of neilhair.com meet Hanns G, my newest and bestest friend (other than Vic Perotti who built the purchase of this monster into a research grant looking at digital business applications in SecondLife). All 28 inches of goodness sat on my desk (all of my desk in fact). I cant wait to test run SecondLife on my German friend using my Japanese Qosmio. Pictures of that event to follow in an additional post.

Autumn 2008 – two days ago – Didcot. Neil celebrates with his two friends the two magnificent victories against his nemisis – the evil – younger brother in the board game Axis and Allies. Whilst his brother faught long and strong, the intellectual superiority of The Master eventually triumphed. With a double Russian / UK mainland European attack through the Ukraine SSR the German war machine (consisting now of mostly men that defend at a roll dice of 2) hiding in the capital – was crushed. With great sadness in his eyes the apprentice handed over Germany's income to The Master – who sat back on the makeshift floor seat, Cuban Siglo II cigar in hand – smiled the ever so subtle smile that says unequivocally – 'I just squashed you like a little flower.' The game was long and the game was hard. In the series of games we played however we are now matched 2 a piece. What was to called 'Neils Troublesome Trip' was saved in the throw of 17 dice that score at 3. A few quick facts for you on the history of our game;

1. I was first introduced to The Board Game in 1986 by a US serviceman living in the house behind us in Grove, Oxfordshire.
2. My mother imported the game for me from the States for the Christmas of 1986. It remains the best present I have ever recieved.
3. My brother started playing at the tender age of 10.
4. He has beaten me 7 times.
5. We have played over 200 games.
6. I do not cheat.
7. He does.
8. He has a tendency to leave his capital open.
9. I do not.
10. Each game takes around 5 hours. This makes the game unpopular with normal people.
11. Starting the game at 10 to midnight is not a good idea.
12. Despite having played the game for over 20 years Greg's interpretation of the rules is imaginative at best.
13. Raised voices throughout the game is perfectly normal. Neighbours need not be concerned.
14. He plays with white dice, I play with red. Never use your opponents dice. Its bad luck.
15. Loosing is genuinely painful. Thankfully he looses more than I do.
16. The decider will be played this November (and we will roll for sides).

It is with mixed feelings to report that Phil Tyler – my mentor and close friend has finally left the building. On Thursday evening Phil taught his last marketing class for us and I was there with his wife and my wife to greet him. Phil has been with the college for almost 40 years and has never taken a quarter off from teaching in that time. His plans now – he tells me – are to travel and take it easy. The allure of life without grading it seems, was just too much. Mixed feelings because I'll miss having him as a colleague (he hired me back in 1999 as a visitor) but I'm pleased for him and Carol that life 3.0 is about to begin. Best wishes mate.