Robert DeSimone

Principal, LeadPoint Development, Inc.

Where to begin...growing up I was an extremely competitive kid...needed to be the best...did everything I could to achieve that...drove my parents crazy doing so...especially in my pursuit in sports. Fortunately, that worked out well...went on to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis and then went to The Johns Hopkins University...played football and Lacrosse at both...was 4-time all American in Lacrosse, twice at Navy, twice at Hopkins...went to play in the 1978 World Championships in Manchester England...wow that was a long time ago...after returning from Europe I became the operations manager at Bloomingdale Bros., Flagship store on 59th Street, NYC. 4 Years later I then went down to wall street and worked at Kidder-Peabody when GE owned them...then left the street just after the crash of '87...had a bunch of short stops here and there...and then became V.P of Customer Relations for Cendant Corp., located in NJ...which brings me to today! Now I work as a senior consultant with C-level executives and their leadership teams in the pursuit of achieving high performance. This is accomplished through Organizational Development processes called High Performance Team Alignment; a process of intervention providing transformational change for teams and individuals that challenges “business as usual.” The process is supported with one-on-one executive and or team coaching and skill based leadership trainings to support the journey. I work with Fortune 500 people and teams, mid-tier organizations and a diverse portfolio of individuals and teams around the globe. While I was reinventing myself and my career I married an absolute earth angel, her name is Maryann, and that was 11 years ago and I absolutely adore her! Each year gets better and better! I thought it couldn’t get any better than this! And then magic happened again! Maryann and I four years ago adopted Katia Emma, Darya Grace, and Irina Skye, biological sisters, from the Ukraine. These are the most courageous, fun loving, Indigo children imaginable! We are truly blessed! I am not sure who is teaching who more...or who saved who…but three months later after we were all a family, the magic hit again. It was shortly after my girls began to speak English, and while saying grace at dinner one evening, Darya finished her prayer by asking…”and please find Vera, and bring her home to us…amen”…Maryann and I were flabbergasted…”who’s Vera I asked,” looking at Maryann and the girls…she returned the look of I don’t know and was just as puzzled…we both turned back to Darya and her sisters and doing their best to share in a new language…and I am translating here, “when our mommy didn’t come home from the hospital, neither did our little sister Vera! Their mom passed while delivering her fourth daughter. We didn’t know. And from that very moment we have been searching for their youngest sister Vera...and hopefully by end of summer we should be closer than where we are today!