FIRST announces new President

[Richard Wallace]

Based on the summary, Don Bossi is a tech business rock star.

Lack of previous experience in a FIRST program doesn't strike me as a negative for this role. Dean and Woodie had no experience with FIRST-like programs, either, when they started this whole thing. (Well, Dr. Flowers did, but only with MIT students. I wonder if Don Bossi was one of those students? )

And I agree that one of the best initial moves Dr. Bossi could make would be to remove the "acting" from Frank Merrick's title.

[Kims Robot]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

(Well, Dr. Flowers did, but only with MIT students. I wonder if Don Bossi was one of those students? )

My intel says he got his BSEE from MIT in 86, and his PhD in EE in 90, so its very possible he crossed paths with Dr. Flowers just as FIRST was being started (though not sure how much the EE/ME department interacted back then).

I'm also wondering with his MIT LL and UTRC affiliations if that gave him any exposure to FIRST before. UTC is certainly a huge supporter of FIRST and has been since the early days, and MIT LL has had some involvement & certainly several judges (though he wasn't one of them - I think he was gone to CT before the Boston regional started up) up here in the Boston Area.

[DonRotolo]

Hm. Working for a boss named Bossi.

The guy definitely has the credentials to do this, and the FIRST message isn't that hard to understand. I just hope he hangs around for several years, consistency helps us.

[Rosiebotboss]

First off, let me welcome Dr. Bossi to FIRST. (Are you reading this?)

I am looking forward to meeting you in June during the Annual Senior Mentor/Regional Director/Partner Conferences at HQ. I hope you book a couple hours of your day to spend with us at some point during the week we will be at HQ. There is no other group of people that I know of, for you to talk to, get to understand and get educated on what FIRST does for students as well as the good and not so good things teams have to deal with.