Fernando Flores
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| Fernando Flores | |
| Born | January 9, 1943 Talca, Chile  |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Researcher, Stanford University Philosophy professor, UC Berkeley Curriculum Development, Erhard Seminars Training Founder, Hermenet Founder, Logonet Founder, Business Design Associates Founder, Action Technologies former Cabinet Minister, Chile Senator, Chile |
| Website http://www.fernandoflores.cl |
|
Carlos Fernando Flores Labra (born January 9, 1943) is a Chilean engineer, philosopher, entrepreneur and politician. He is a former cabinet minister of president Salvador Allende and is currently senator for the Arica and Parinacota and Tarapacá regions.
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[edit] Biography
Flores was born in Talca, Chile. He became finance minister in the government of Chilean president Salvador Allende and then spent three years as a political prisoner (from September 11, 1973 to 1976) after the military coup of General Augusto Pinochet. Forced into exile, after negotiations on his behalf by Amnesty International, he moved with his family to Palo Alto, California, and worked as a researcher in the Computer Science department at Stanford University. He subsequently obtained his PhD at UC Berkeley under the guidance of Hubert Dreyfus, Stuart Dreyfus, John Searle and Ann Markussen. There he developed his work on philosophy, coaching and workflow technology, influenced by Heidegger, Maturana, John Austin and others. His thesis was titled Management and Communication in the Office of the Future.
[edit] Projects and companies founded
Flores has founded several companies including "Hermenet" (for which he used a $6 million investment from Werner Erhard); "Logonet", an education company; "Business Design Associates", a management consulting company (later acquired by VISION Consulting); and Action Technologies, a software company, where he introduced new distinctions in workflow analysis, groupware, software design and business process analysis that he developed in association with Terry Winograd. His newest project is an Internet-based movement called Atina Chile.
[edit] Involvement, est/Werner Erhard
- Main articles: Werner Erhard, Erhard Seminars Training, Werner Erhard and Associates
In the 1980s Werner Erhard worked with Flores[1] on aspects of language, setting up a body of work which makes a distinction between, on the one hand 'speaking that describes being' with, on the other hand, 'speaking that brings forth being'. The work that Dr. Flores did with Erhard was incorporated into The Forum.
On October 28, 1987, Flores contributed $1,000 to Werner Erhard's brother Nathan Rosenberg's campaign for congress[2] in California's 40th district. The contribution was given under the organization "F and F Investments".
Werner Erhard's attorney Harry Margolis utilized Fernando Flores' resources, when he created circuitous offshore tax-shelters for Erhard's various companies.[3] Flores' services were utilized again when Werner Erhard and Harry Margolis set up the financial structure behind The Hunger Project.[4]
[edit] Politics
Flores was Finance Minister of president Salvador Allende in the early 1970s, before he was imprisoned, subjected to prolonged, systematic psychological torture and later driven to exile by the military regime of Augusto Pinochet.
In 2001 Flores was elected senator for the Tarapacá Region, as a member of the center-left Party for Democracy (PPD), a constituent party of the governing coalition Concertación.
In late 2004 Flores was unsuccessful in becoming the PPD's candidate for President of Chile and he later supported the candidacy of Michelle Bachelet.
In 2006 Flores ran for the presidency of the PPD party, but lost to Sergio Bitar. Later that year he began to move away from the party following disagreements with the current party leadership, following a corruption scandal (see: 2006–2007 Chilean corruption scandal.) On January 8, 2007 he inaugurated a new political project called Chile Primero ("Chile Comes First"). The next day he submitted his resignation to the PPD. Currently, he is a pro-Concertación independent senator, and has announced he will not seek reelection in 2009.
[edit] Publications
- Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life, (author)
- Understanding Computers and Cognition : A New Foundation for Design (with Terry Winograd), (co-author)
- Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action, and the Cultivation of Solidarity, (co-author, with Charles Espinosa and Hubert Dreyfus)
- Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years, a special issue of the Communications of the ACM journal, (contributor)
[edit] References
- ^ Fernando Flores Webpage, last updated June 19, 2006, [1]
- ^ Campaign Contribution Search, Fernando Flores, donations to Werner Erhard's brother Nathan Rosenberg's campaign for congress [2]
- ^ The Asset Protection Book, "Werner H. Erhard v. Commissioner Internal Revenue Service", February 8, 1995, [3]
Accordingly, Erhard called Wolfgang Somary, co- founder of Intercultural Cooperation Foundation ("ICF"), seeking to borrow money for WEA. ICF had no money to lend; however, shortly thereafter, Margolis called Somary and arranged for ICF to accept funds from a Margolis system entity and then to lend those funds to WEA. Margolis also contacted Fernando Flores, co-founder of the St. John Fundacion, who likewise agreed to act as a conduit for the loan so long as the funds were made available to him. As nonsystem entities, ICF and St. John were enlisted to participate because Erhard's outside lawyers regarded a fully disclosable source of the loan as essential to an acceptable asset acquisition plan. - ^ "The Winds of Werner", Forbes Magazine, November 18, 1985, Richard Behar and Ralph King Jr., [4]
Although very little of the money collected actually goes to feed people, the Hunger Project does have the occasional token development project to show the curious. The largest such project is a five-year, $1 million development effort funded jointly with Save The Children in rural Costa Rica. Why Costa Rica, the most prosperous country in Central America, and a place where most aid experts say hunger is virtually non-existent? One reason may be the man who put the deal together, a prominent Costa Rican government official and friend of Erhard's named Fernando Flores-Banuet. He just happens to be the same individual whose San José charity served as a conduit for the $15 million Zurich loan to Erhard in 1981.
[edit] External links
- Personal blog
- http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/21/flores.html Fast Company article on Flores — "The Power of Words"]
- Center for Quality of Management Journal article — "Using the Methods of Fernando Flores"
- Fernando Flores, Fernando Flores, contributes to Werner Erhard's brother Nathan Rosenberg's congressional campaign, October 28, 1987, Federal Election Commission data, 9/11/2006.
- [5]
[edit] See also
| Preceded by None |
Curriculum Development Erhard Seminars Training October 1971 – February 1981 |
Succeeded by Brian Regnier, Course Designer, Werner Erhard and Associates, Landmark Education |
