CV

Email: burke@burkerobinson.com
Website:  www.burkerobinson.com

Summary of Expertise
Works with the top management team and board of directors of leading global companies to help them make complex decisions about strategy and change in their organizations.  Leads executive seminars and retreats for organizations worldwide to: develop strategic agendas, identify issues and challenges, create new alternatives, evaluate uncertain consequences, make clear decisions, and implement action plans.  Manages funds and co-funds in a seed venture capital firm.  Teaches decision analysis and decision-making courses at Stanford University.  Speaks at international conferences on decision and risk analysis.  Mentors students, athletes, and entrepreneurs.

Burke Robinson                                                                                                                          February 1999 to present
Decision Consultant                                                                                                                                                        Palo Alto, CA
Advises, coaches, and assists senior executives as they make key decisions that shape their organization’s future, including crisis decisions, major investment decisions, enterprise strategy, and portfolio strategy.  Conducts strategy seminars and workshops, training and development programs, and executive retreats.  Provides practical approaches for the art of qualitative framing and structuring as well as the science of quantitative assessment and analysis of key strategic decisions.  Conducts workshops for professional sports teams.  Offers guidance to entrepreneurs in start-ups.

Rothenberg Ventures, LLC                                                                                                 September 2018 to present
Manager, General Partner and Limited Partner                                                                                     San Francisco, CA
Co-manages $46 million of seed venture capital investments in almost 100 start-up companies with a fair market value over $69 million.  Manages service provider agreements, investor relations and communications, distributions to investors of asset sales or other proceeds, oversight committees, legal strategies, and accounting and financial reporting.  Has fiduciary responsibility for all funds and co-funds.

Stanford University                                                                                                                                   March 2018 to present
Lecturer, Sustainability Science and Practice, School of Sustainability                                                                 Stanford, CA
Teaches a pragmatic course that presents common-sense rules and decision-making tools to achieve clarity of action for important decisions – from personal choices to organizational decisions about business strategies and public policies. Art and science combine in the essential focus, discipline, and passion needed to make high-quality decisions, and thereby increase the probability of desired outcomes. Lectures cover effective normative approaches and efficient management processes for analyzing complex decisions as well as implementing them in the face of an uncertain future world. In an experiential learning environment, students develop their skills using state-of-the art methods and techniques for critically analyzing some of the actual decisions being made in a variety of private and public, business, nonprofit, and government organizations. Mentors students from various backgrounds on career and entrepreneurial decisions, and helps recruit scholar-athletes for Stanford's varsity athletic programs.

Stanford University                                                                                                                          February 1999- August 2020
Consulting Professor and Lecturer, Management Science & Engineering, School of Engineering                        Stanford, CA
Taught courses in the following topics:  introduction to decision analysis, decision analysis tools and techniques, decision analysis projects, decision analysis applications, professional decision consulting, decision making in organizations, business strategy and public policy, environmental decision making, energy decision making, medical decision making, and decision systems.  Advised PhD students on dissertation topics and research.

Institute for the Future                                                                                                              February 2003 to October 2003
Director, Business Horizons Program                                                                                                                                  Menlo Park, CA
Directed a multi-disciplinary research and consulting program to develop forecasts about alternative future scenarios, and to draw insights about strategic decisions that deliver value in those scenarios.  Redesigned the signature product, the Ten-Year Forecast, as a trilogy of reports:  a qualitative analysis of future risk and opportunities, a quantitative analysis of data and projected trends, and various visualizations to capture conceptual maps and graphic information displays.  Facilitated conferences and workshops.  Managed customized research and consulting engagements.

Strategic Decisions Group                                                                                                August 1981 to February 1999
Director and Partner                                                                                                                                          Menlo Park, CA
Helped global Fortune 500 clients create and realize value in five key areas:

1. Strategic Leadership — developed corporate portfolio and business unit strategies; provided advice and guidance on global expansion, merger and acquisition, corporate/project financing, product and market revitalization, business process innovation, and organizational realignment.

2. Strategic Management — shifted focus of the corporate culture to value creation, re-engineered management and decision processes, restructured businesses around value centers rather than functions, and developed systems for asset value management.

3. Business Development — screened new business candidates, created high-tech product opportunities, developed international market entry alternatives, refocused business plan for partners in global consortium, and analyzed competing venture development strategies.

4. Risk Management — diversified commodity portfolio risk, documented mega-project construction and operating risk, assessed political/technical/social/economic risk of new technologies, and measured financial liquidity risk.

5. Decision Analysis — optimized pharmaceutical company R&D project portfolios, assessed product/market uncertainties for manufacturing company, evaluated capital cost uncertainties for large mining operation, compared alternative technologies for aluminum production, and analyzed risk and return of oil & gas exploration decisions.

Responsible for marketing, selling, and managing $2-5 million of annual consulting project revenues in energy, oil & gas, utilities, pulp & paper, forestry, mining & metals, chemicals, software, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, telecommunications, automotive, insurance, and financial service industries. Developed long-term account relationships with clients; led practice area development; and organized internal processes for recruiting, training, and performance review.

Specific projects in the oil & gas industry included: value creation analysis of an E&P portfolio of Canadian oil and gas properties, investment risk analysis of a joint venture to develop Athabasca tar sands, exploration opportunity assessment for assets in New Zealand and Indonesia, development project analyses for Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, decision analysis for oil sands and shale mining and extraction in western USA, gas and natural gas liquids pipeline decision analyses in Texas, offshore drilling strategies for existing and new wells, and oilfield services strategies for an international conglomerate. 

Specific other projects in the energy industry included: electric and gas utility corporate strategy, diversification, and merger & acquisition decisions; steam generator repair and replacement decisions for nuclear power plants; and coal supply contract and delivery options analysis.

Resource Planning Associates                                                                                         October 1980 to August 1981
Senior Associate                                                                                                                                                  San Francisco, CA
Consultant in energy and natural resource practice area.  Responsible for managing $1 million in annual consulting project revenues.  Developed EPRI seminar program for electric utility executives.  Focused on decision analysis for R&D and technical investments.

SRI International                                                                                                           September 1978 to October 1980
Decision Analyst                                                                                                                                                  Menlo Park, CA
Assisted government and corporate clients with decision support software design, cryptography research choices, residential fire prevention strategies, refinery/petrochemical plant expansion options, oil sands investment decisions, and coal gasification technology R&D selection.

Institute for the Future                                                                                              November 1973 to September 1974
Research Associate                                                                                                                                                     Menlo Park, CA
Researched future trends: societal values in response to the energy crisis, critical global priorities for philanthropic foundation programs, and social impacts of telecommunications technology.

Education
PhD     1979   Engineering-Economic Systems           Stanford University
MS       1976   Engineering-Economic Systems           Stanford University
MA      1973   Technology and Human Affairs            Washington University, St. Louis
BA        1971   Psychology                                            Stanford University

Professional Affiliations
Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi)
Association for Psychological Type (APT)
Certified trainer for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)