PHIL VAN AUKEN PERSONALIZED BIO
(Van Auken is a Dutch name; Van means “from” & Auken is the name of the city where my ancestors came from.)
I was born and reared in El Paso, TX (1948), where I absorbed considerable ethnic diversity growing up-not only Latin culture, but also people from many other parts of the USA and world. I lived and went to
schools near Fort Bliss (the world’s largest basic training military facility) in El Paso with military “brats”
from numerous ethnic and national pedigrees. I lived in a barely-middle class El Paso neighborhood, where I
saw/experienced a lot of life, sometimes raw. I consider growing up in El Paso about the best thing that
ever happened to me.
I thought cultural diversity was normal until my dad’s job in the natural gas industry was transferred to
Odessa, TX (1964) where everyone looked the same but tawked with a twang! I finished high school in
Odessa (Permian HS), where I met my wife, Carolyn. For several summers I worked in 7-11 stores and for
a large petrochemical plant. I attended Odessa Community College (1966-1968) and then married Carolyn
and moved back to El Paso to finish college at UT-El Paso (UTEP). Carolyn got her “PHT” degree (Put
Husband Through).
At UTEP I worked as a part-time “gopher” for management professor/business consultant, Charlie Stenicka.
I also did jobs for lawyer/state legislator Skip Scoggins who headed up the El Paso Employer’s Association
(kinda like the typical Chamber of Commerce). Between these dual part-time jobs, I saw up-close and
personal more of the real world than I bargained for: labor union conflict and corporate politics at El Paso’s
own Farah Manufacturing (then one of the largest leisure wear companies in the world); production line design
and (mis)management, family feuding, and exploitative labor practices at Tony Lama Boot Company (world’s
largest hand-made boots, also headquartered in El Paso); the local Coors beer distributorship (where Charlie
Stenicka designed and help run one of the most successful experiments ever in self-managed teams); and the
Popular Department Store group (at the time, El Paso’s biggest and most respected retailer), where I
learned about the invisible realities of retailing and business in general. I also did my first management
training seminar for Popular’s department heads. At the EP Employer’s Association, I wrote a bi-weekly
newsletter for their members, conducted market surveys, and was a “fly on the wall” at a number of “power
lunches” Skip Skoggins masterminded as part of his political networking. I was around VIPs quite often,
including national and state political leaders, federal, state, and local judges, and a number of big time
CEOs. (El Paso was a magnet for politicians and government officials on the make with the Hispanic
community/Mexico and the military).
My college years were smack dab in the middle of the biggest social revolution since the US Civil War: the
detested Vietnam war; “hippy” free love communes; college student violent protests; emergence of the drug
culture and feminism; “acid rock” music and the Beatles; serial political assassinations; racial radicalism;
southern desegregation; and the space race. Whew--those were definitely not the good old days!
After graduating from UTEP (1970), I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so Carolyn and I headed to (the
nearest) grad school at Texas Tech in Lubbock (pronounced Lub-uck, not Lubick”). I got my MBA (1972) and
then enrolled in the business doctoral program, finishing in 1976. I worked part-time at Tech, first as a
systems analyst (heading up a three-year, three-staff-members project to develop a complete systems and
procedures manual (several hundred pages of flow charts and procedural directions) for all Tech
administrators (from secretaries to the Vice Presidents) to use. In that job I talked/consulted with
practically every administrator on campus in capturing the steps and processes involved in their peculiar
administrative functions. Before the job was over, I went to and through every nook and cranny on campus,
including doors, offices, warehouses, gyms, practice fields, stadiums, dorms, agricultural buildings,
experimental crops, parking lots, laboratories, music studios, storage deports, rest rooms, and even a few
windows (!). I officed on the top floor of the 12-story business school (served by only two slow elevators).
Being young, energetic, and impatient, I usually headed to my office up the stairwell two-stairs at a time.
Sometimes I raced a new, young management professor I had for class up the stairs. (For some reason, he
won every race!) For my last three years of class work and research, I taught two undergrad classes per
semester. The whole time I was at Tech, the B-school was in political uproar, as the university had just
shifted to a “publish-or-perish” role for faculty. A tough (his last name was Steel), “hit-man” dean was
hired specifically to get rid of all “dead wood” (non-publishing) business faculty. The ensuing warfare (which
I could easily write a thousand pages about) went on the whole time I was a grad student. I was a (wideeyed) eye witness to dirty politics and nasty organizational conflict on a daily basis--definitely a different
sort of higher education.
Upon surviving Tech, Carolyn and I needed to see some different terrain, so I landed my first full-time
teaching position at Western Kentucky University (the “Hilltoppers”) in Bowling Green, KY (about 30 miles due
north of Nashville, TN). We lived in a beautiful, fully-cared for home owned by the university (with
century-old bricks made by “Shakers”) and got to enjoy the “smoky” mountains of western Kentucky/northern
Tennessee and a very different climate from Texas. The school even had canon “ramparts” (firing platforms)
left over from the Civil War. Great place, great people, great times, but Carolyn and I knew we really
needed to get back to Texas, friends, and family, so I accepted a teaching position in Baylor’s business
school in 1978…and stayed.
In my Bear years, I have taught a variety of management and international business classes and engaged in
steady consulting (see accompanying sheet), keeping one foot planted in the “real” world (hopefully to
enhance my teaching). I helped start and run the Baylor Center for Church Management for several years
and wrote a number of practical articles and two books for non-profit social service organizations (if you’re
interested, click the “Phil’s Writing” link on my homepage). My two most recent (online) books are used to
certify professionals in team-building (prof Charlie Stenicka’s legacy to me) and mastery of 21st century
leadership and managerial tools. This self-administered certification process is also available (click
“Professional Development Certification” on the course website page) at no cost/no classes to BU students
interested in pre-graduation professional development and in strengthening their resumes.
Carolyn and I reared three children (Matt, Cindy, and Daniel) and now spend gobs of time with our three
grandchildren (Jonathan, Lauren, and Ryan). Ballroom dancing (including teaching it) is our favorite
recreational activity is. We attend Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Waco, where I occasionally fill-in for
the pastor as a certified “parish lay leader.” I have also served as a volunteer chaplain’s assistant in a
number of county jails and state prisons. My favorite personal “hobbies” are listening to music (especially
classic American jazz music), and reading non-fiction (biographies of creative people, philosophy and
theology, and cultural history). Please feel free to call me Phil.
C’est moi
PVA REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
Odessa TX blue collar sweat labor (4 summers)
El Paso Products Co. petrochemicals plant complex
7-11 convenience store
Temp worker for warehouses, pipe inspectors, mowing crews, etc.
El Paso TX (last 2 undergraduate years working as a “gopher” for a UTEP business consultant professor of mine)
Coors distributorship (self-directed team-building)
El Paso Employer’s Association (newsletter writer)
Popular Department Stores (supervisory seminar for store department managers)
Tony Lama handmade boot company (production line efficiency analysis)
Texas Tech University (2 years, part-time)
Texas Tech systems analyst; developed flowchart comprehensive manual of campus systems-and-procedures
Waco/Central TX consulting (team-building and effectiveness of managers and board members)
Better Business Bureau Educational Foundation Serving the Heart of Texas
Caritas of Waco
Centex Prison Fellowship
Central Texas World Hunger Relief
Education Foundation of the Heart of Texas
Eight churches
Heart of Texas Better Business Bureau
Heart of Texas Enterprise Alliance
Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition
Jaynes, Reitmeier, Boyd & Therrell, P.C.
Mission Waco
Parents for Public Schools
Texas Baptist Convention
Waco Better Business Bureau
Waco Economic Opportunity Advancement Corporation
Waco Veterans Administration Hospital
U.S. consulting (business strategy; conflict resolution; managerial effectiveness)
Century Crafts and Craftown, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Farm Bureau, Nashville, Tennessee
Mammoth Cave Production Credit Association, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Nyack College, Westchester County, New York
The Village Shop, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Village Presbyterian Church, Prairieville, Kansas
Management and team building seminars
American Quasar
Baptist Children’s Homes of Oklahoma
Baylor University Continuing Education
Columbia Gulf Transmission
Delta Kappa Gamma
Electric Utilities Association
Hotel Dieu (El Paso)
Hotel Dieu (New Orleans)
M&M Mars
Motorola
National Association of Church Business Administration
National Credit Management Association
Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association
Baptist General Convention of Texas
Prison Fellowship, Central Texas ministry
Providence Hospital (Waco)
SONAT
Southern Baptist Church Business Administration Association
Southern Gas Association
St. Paul Hospital (Dallas)
Texas Baptist Missions
Van Tran Electronics
Waco Economic Opportunity Advancement Corporation
Waco Independent School District
Weyerhauser
Miscellaneous Baylor Administrative Experience
Chair, management Department (2 years)
Co-Director, Center for Church Management (4 years)
Management Books (all available free online, PVA website)
Blueprints for Success in Non-Profit Organizations (PVA online)
Experiencing Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (Prentice-Hall)
Management for Professionals: Practical, Positive, Productive Strategies for Professional Development and Career
Success (PVA online)
The Well-Managed Ministry (Victor Press)
Virtual Teamwork: Building Your Own Professional Community of Productivity and Meaning (PVA online)