Skin in the Game. Jim Gilreath

Early Background

      Ed was born and raised in Waterford, CT. His father (Ernie Garvin) was a nuclear submariner in the Navy until he retired as a Chief Electrician when Ed was in the ninth grade. His father went to work for the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics after his retirement from the Navy. He commuted to western Pennsylvania and returned home every other weekend throughout Ed’s high school years. Ed’s mother stayed at home and raised her four children.

      Ed was the oldest of the four. His brother, Maurice, earned his BA degree from Harvard University and his JD from UCONN, and is an attorney for the State of Rhode Island. His sister Millie graduated from The University of Bridgeport with a degree in Computer Science. She is the mother of four children and handles the accounting for her husband’s IT consulting company, Cloud Systems LLC, based in New Haven, CT. Ed’s youngest sister, Carrie, graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and received her Master’s degree in Education from Bucknell University. She is the head women’s basketball coach at Lehigh University.

      Ed has always enjoyed sports and competition and earned a Varsity letter three times each in football and baseball during high school. He was elected captain and was All Conference for each sport during his senior year. His other activities during high school included Yearbook Editor, Boy’s State Delegate, National Honor Society, Senior Class Officer, and Altar Server.

      He purchased a paper route in the fifth grade and has held some position of employment every year since. Ed graduated in the top 10% of his high school class of 450 students and was awarded the Citizenship Award, among other awards. Ed grew his paper route from fifty papers to 250 papers by the time he sold it in the eighth grade. His high school jobs included self-employment (painting, landscaping, snow removal, and delivery for a florist). He also had a maintenance job for an apartment complex, he umpired, and he interned at IBM in Endicott, NY during his college summers.

      Ed went back to Waterford after his college graduation in May 1983 until his General Electric Corporation (GE) position began in December 1983. During that time, he worked for the highway department, taught as a substitute teacher for the junior high and senior high school, and coached football at Waterford High School. At an early age, Ed assumed a lot of responsibility at home with his dad being out to sea and then later commuting to Pennsylvania. As a result, Ed matured quite early and was well prepared for life after high school.

       Secondary Education and Other Training

      Ed was recruited to play football and baseball by several schools including the Naval Academy, Coast Guard Academy, Union College, Trinity College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He chose Harvard University, recognizing the advantages it had to offer. His research indicated that the combination of an undergraduate engineering degree with an MBA to follow might be most desirable and a practical use of his quantitative aptitude.

      Ed graduated with honors and a B.S. in Business Management and Marketing. His GPA was 3.6 for the four years. Ed financed 90–95% of his education through scholarships, on-campus work-study, and summer employment. In addition to maintaining work-study positions all eight semesters, he participated in the Big Brother program, played baseball freshman year, and football the two years thereafter. He would have played football during his senior year but he had sudden surgery for a hernia during August and elected to not play football and concentrate on his job search.

      Ed earned his MBA in 1996 from Columbia University. Other company training he has received includes: GE Financial Management Program (FMP), Effective Presentation, Developing Managerial Effectiveness, New Manager Development Course, Advanced Financial Management Course, Volvo Trucks Total Quality Transformation, Looking Glass Experience, American Flooring Industries, Six Sigma Greenbelt, and Six Sigma Champions Training.

       Professional Work History

      Ed was recruited by GE for the Financial Management Program (FMP) through the Harvard Career Center and was offered a position to start in December 1983. He targeted GE’s training program because he felt the combination of the rotational work assignments and after-hours course instruction would be a great broad and rigorous introduction to the world of business. He also liked the fact that financial managers were trained to become general managers.

       FMP Trainee in GE Turbine Division - 1983 to 1986

      For the first two years, Ed was in Lynn, MA with the Medium Steam Business and the third year at the Turbine Division in Schenectady, NY. This was followed by six-month rotational assignments through General Accounting (Accounts Payable), Manufacturing Finance, Business Unit Financial Planning and Analysis, and Cost Accounting.