Rob Sterling

Don't you hate it when you click through to a bio blurb and it's written in the third person, despite being transparently autobiographical? It's certainly easier to praise yourself in the third person, and less obviously self-promotional. For example, compare these two sentences:

1. I am a highly regarded expert on retro-dynamic cybersprockets.
2. Rob Sterling is a highly regarded expert on retro-dynamic cybersprockets.

See the difference there? Reading the first sentence, you might ask "Who the hell is this guy to claim to be highly regarded?" But if I instead write that "Robert Sterling" is highly regarded, it might not occur to you that I wrote it myself. So that leaves me in a bit of a bind, because I'm really not the sort of guy who goes around tooting his own horn. There is, however, a blurb out there about me that I did not write:

Robert Sterling specializes in consumer facing applications. Prior to his work with Points North Group, Mr. Sterling was a senior analyst at Jupiter Research where he pioneered its financial services coverage, advising clients such as E*Trade, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, Fleet Bank, Wachovia, and Bank One. Before Jupiter, he managed online development projects at Checkfree Investment Services for some of the first online brokerage firms, including Jack White, National Discount Brokers, American Express Financial Services and Vanguard. Prior to Checkfree, Mr. Sterling was a broker at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Sterling has been frequently quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist and Financial Times. He has appeared at numerous conferences, including investment industry events sponsored by the Securities Industry Association, UBS Paine Webber, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and Morningstar. Mr. Sterling earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from American University in Washington, DC.

Whew. Dodged a bullet there.