Friday, September 14, 2007

Brian Altman

Greetings from NoCal. This blog is surprisingly addicting. Time for me to get off the sideline. Here’s my shot at 20 years on one page. Sorry if it goes long.

After Chaminade I attended UC Santa Barbara where I graduated with a BS in Physics. I loved it there and met my wife, Kristen, in the middle of my 4th year. She graduated on time and lived briefly with my parents while I took a victory lap to finish a two quarter lab. Becoming a nerd takes time and apparently a lot of beer.

While still in school I spent quite a bit of time chasing sales jobs with IBM and NCR. Everything looked great other than the massive layoffs that started to kick in shortly before graduation. Realizing those options were dead, I called a friend who knew someone at Intel in Folsom. He put me on hold, called Folsom, and when he came back on the line I had an interview scheduled the next week. Turned out it was a business planner position which means I was planning factory capacity and shipments to the various parts of the world. I pounded my head against quantum mechanics and astrophysics for that? Oh well, it was a job. Kristen and I moved to Folsom and got married in 1993. Jim McCue actually met his wife at the reception.

I spent seven years at Intel, moving fairly quickly out of factory planning and into engineering. Both of our kids were born during that time. More on them below. In 2000, I decided to participate in a small 7 person semiconductor test equipment startup. We moved to Irvine in 2000 to help get the company off the ground. Great year. Spent a lot of time at Disneyland and Angel games in addition to a lot of time in the lab and the garage. We decided to sell to a larger company, Credence, in the bay area late in 2000. Pretty good timing since the tech acquisition market fell off hard over the next couple of months. Kristen, the kids and I decided to move back to Folsom. Love the bay area but we didn't want to live there.

I worked for Credence for about 5 years as a director of engineering and, later, a director of marketing, making the 2+ hour drive a couple of times/week. The job was good but, in 2005, we decided schedule stability would be better. Too late for my hair. I'm with Bruce on the virtues of the comb over. Shaved it off a few years ago. Dabbing sunscreen through hair got ridiculous somewhere around 35. As my wife so eloquently put it "you didn't have great hair anyway". Very funny. Can’t argue. I moved back to an Intel marketing role in 2005. I'm definitely not a big company lifer (too slow) but it has been a good family move.

Kristen is a stay at home mom who seems to work at the school as much as some teachers. Our daughter Kylie was born in '96 (turning 11 October 19th) and our son Trevor was born in '98 (9 yrs old November 3rd). They both play outdoor and indoor soccer. I've coached Kylie's team for seven years and my wife has coached my son’s team for 5. Kylie also plays softball, violin, acts in the annual school play and is starting to play volleyball. Trevor plays baseball and pounds me in video games during his spare time. I asst coach on both softball/baseball teams so we're all pretty busy most of the year. My parents moved to the area around 2000. They are both doing well, traveling and playing a lot of golf.




I still play competitive soccer a couple of times/week although the 20 somethings are quicker than they used to be and the mornings are more entertaining. CREAK! POP! I’m sure you all recognize that morning ritual. The old man leagues aren't far off. I also play beer league softball with McCue (AKA poker pre-game), golf a couple of times/month and sub on a volleyball team once in a while.

Finally, I recently started a masters program at USC in Engineering Management. I'm sure that will sit well with all of our Bruin alumni. I can hear Molnar now.

Anyway, the blog has been great so far. Keep 'em coming. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Thanks to Amy, Lisa and Carol for keeping everything on track and Anthony for lighting up the blog. See you all next month.

Go Nad!.... er.... Eagles!
Brian

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