Corporate Leader for Kirby Arnold & Associates Workshops

Kurt Haug has over 25 years experience as a senior business executive with strong operational and international expertise establishing, building and expanding profitable technology ventures. His principal focus has been Sales, Marketing and Business Development functions, with an exceptionally strong Finance orientation both broad and deep in application to real life business problems.

Kurt has extremely rare international expertise—strategic, tactical and operational— having had P&L responsibility for 26 separate subsidiaries and sales offices in 16 markets on every continent except Antarctica. A former Japanese translator, he has particular strength in Japan as well as the entire Asia/Pacific region.

As a Program Manager for Sperry Corporation, Kurt was instrumental in bringing the first “foreign” (non-U.S.) manufactured personal computer to market, kickstarting the global PC OEM industry.

As Executive VP of International Sales and Business Development for storage companies including Emerald Systems and Tecmar/Rexon, Kurt launched distribution networks and business units that ultimately represented 30% and more of corporate revenue. Working with large global hardware Kurt and his teams penetrated large corporate and governmental accounts throughout both Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

For over four years Kurt lived in Tokyo and ultimately ended up running the entire international operations (Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe) for Micrografx, Inc. during a period when non-U.S. operations contributed up to 70% of the company’s revenues. Over that period he functioned as VP of AsiaPacific/International and acting COO for the parent company and was also Chairman, CEO and Representative Director for the wholly-owned Japanese subisidiary, Micrografx, KK. As a well-known figure in the Japanese software industry, he also served as Chairman of the Software Committee for AEA (American Electronics Association) Japan, as well as participating on several key advisory committees for industry and governmental groups.

As Executive VP, International, Kurt went on to establish international operations for Photodisc, Inc. including subsidiaries in Australia and Japan. He was also an early team member and the first COO of Ancestry.com (later MyFamily.com, and The Generations Network), writing the first business and operating plans for the company during the period they raised their first two rounds of venture capital, launching the company to the forefront of the internet-based family history market.

Since settling with his wife and family of eight children in Utah in 1999, Kurt has worked with local technology companies including Ancestry.com/MyFamily.com (COO), Communitect (founder, CEO), Access Technology Solutions (COO) and Tangible Express (VP, Marketing and Business Development). He continues to keep his hand in the sales, marketing, business development and finance aspects of interesting new enterprises in addition to facilitating Business Acumen training as an executive for Kirby Arnold & Associates.

Kurt is active in the Stanford Alumni Association and holds degrees in Japanese (AA) and Entrepreneurial Business (BA). He has also designed and taught university-level classes in Entrepreneurship and Creativity at Metro State College/University of Colorado, Denver, as well as executive training seminars in “Shouninjutsu- the Secret Art of Ninja Marketing.”