I have been deeply involved in the Puget Sound business community over the last 25 years as an executive at Microsoft and currently as a venture investor in early stage software companies. We have benefitted enormously from the innovative companies that have made this region their home.

Unfortunately we face two major crises. First very few students that graduate from our local public schools have the requisite skills necessary to compete for the technically oriented jobs of the future. The second crisis is the enormous debt at the federal level of our government, as well as the trillions of dollars in unfunded public sector pension and health care liabilities for employees and retirees at the state, county, and city level all across the country.

Our local school districts will be required to dramatically improve productivity and results in the same way we as citizens expect every other industry to improve. This will require strong leadership and a level of business and financial acumen never required on local school boards.

I have known Ed Luera the last nine years from our volunteer efforts with youth in the community. Ed possesses the type of skills our community will need on our school board to work with administrators, teachers, and parents to ensure we are educating our children for the intensely competitive future. He is a hard working and optimistic man with high expectations. We need Ed’s passion for excellence, business acumen and community commitment on our Bellevue School board.

John Connors, Medina