Robert Ruder (1965-) was born just a few blocks away from his current residence in Spokane, WA. While his life has come full circle, his passion for humanity, empowerment, growth, and individual potential has never been stronger. Besides running his own successful sole proprietor business in Information Systems, he teaches as Adjunct Faculty in the School of Business Administration at Gonzaga University. His current projects include building an online academy in Systems Thinking and building a data platform for "the little" guy to take advantage of the huge potential of current technologies. He also looks forward to the time--sooner than later--when he will be able to travel to distant points of the planet to experience things from another point of view.