David Reed, Ph.D., JD, MBA – Principal at Criterion Capital, LLC

Dear Colleagues:

Welcome back for “Spring” semester in Cleveland! The Friday Public Affairs discussions resume with an important issue for economic policy.

As a possibly pseudonymous attorney advised employers, “The information economy is built on knowledge. Knowledge is generated by people. The non-competition agreement is a tool used to help companies maintain control of these two crucial assets.” One might think these and other related agreements would not be necessary if employers kept and treated workers well, so they did not quit. But employees might want to take knowledge gained on the job and profit more from it elsewhere. Or employers might want to use such agreements to reduce employees’ bargaining power, by limiting the potential for them to take another job.

The incentives for companies to insist on non-competition and related agreements are clear therefore, But little else about them is. There is no economic evidence and almost no theory as to whether the agreements work as they are designed to and only one or two studies have attempted to assess their collateral effects on employee motivation and productivity. There also has been little discussion in general of the appropriate ‘reach’ that an organization can and should exercise into the lives and thoughts of its employees. These issues have moved out of the ‘technology’ sector where they began and workers in a wide range of organizations and at lower and lower compensation levels are being asked to enter into these agreements. In recent years they have even entered the non-profit sector and the world of Academia.

David Reed brings a wealth of practical experience to reflecting on this issue. Currently Principal at Criterion Capital, LLC, his career includes co-founding and leading a venture-backed startup company, Bright View Technologies; being a partner in a venture capital firm, Fusion Ventures; serving as Managing Director for International Mergers and Acquisitions at Prudential Bache in London and as a VP for Mergers and Acquisitions with Lehman Brothers in New York.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

In his business career, David Reed has been an observer of and participant in the transformation of financial markets. As a student at the Wharton School, he once told me he had spent his Summer internship, “inventing new securities.” Yet his intellectual interests go far beyond the world of business. In between his work at Prudential Bache and Fusion Ventures, he left that world to earn his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Oxford, and then served as a Research Assistant Professor at Duke. David earned his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his JD/MA in Finance and Tax from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Figures of Thought: Mathematics and Mathematical Texts (Routledge, 1994 and 2013), which has been called, “the sort of textbook that every philosopher of mathematics would like to have on their reference shelf.”

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

January 23: Encouraging Savings by the Poor in Developing Countries. With Silvia Prina, Assistant Professor of Economics.

January 30: Is It Time for a New U.S. Grand Strategy? With Patrick Doherty, Co-Director of the Strategic Innovation Lab, Weatherhead School of Management.

February 6: What I Learned About American Electoral Politics: Memoirs (in brief) of a 2014 Congressional Candidate. With Michael Wager, Taft Stettinius and Hollister LLP.

February 13: TBD

February 20: The Warren Commission and the Academy: Exploring Truth in a Political World. With Judge (ret.) Burt W. Griffin.

February 27: TBD

March 6: What Explains the Price of Gasoline? With Steven W. Percy, former Chairman and CEO, BP of America.

March 13: Spring Break

March 20: TBD

March 27: Talking Turkey: Some Personal (and Historical) Perspectives on Turkish Politics and Society. With John Grabowski, Krieger-Mueller Associate Professor in Applied History; Senior Vice President for Research and Publications, Western Reserve Historical Society.

April 3: TBD

April 10: Obama’s White House and Management Style: A Recipe for Success or Failure? With David B. Cohen, Professor of Political Science, University of Akron.

April 17: Origins and Prospects of the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. With Karl C. Kaltenthaler, Professor of Political Science, University of Akron.

April 24: TBD