About Us
John Kelso, Owner & Managing Consultant
John received his Bachelor of Science with honors in Business Economics, with a concentration in Japanese Studies, from the State University of New York at Oneonta in 1988. He has also done some graduate work at the University of Washington in both the MBA and law school programs from 1989-1991. John then worked at Microsoft from 1992 to 2000 as a database analyst and project manager. After that, John Kelso Consulting was formed.
John is a CompTIA Project+ certified project manager, with advanced skills in Microsoft software, especially SQL Server, Microsoft's database management system. Originally from New York City, John is a no-nonsense kind of guy who loves to jump right in and get things done quickly. Having lived now for 20 years in Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue, John thinks of himself as a Northwesterner with an edge. The combination makes John affable and easy to relate to, while he makes sure things get done "in a NYC minute".
Some interesting tid-bits:
John spent his senior year in college in Fukuoka, Japan. He speaks very basic conversational Japanese. In John's words, "Watashino nihongo ga ii dewa arimasen." He still thinks of his time overseas as one of the best experiences of his life.
After returning to New York from Japan, John became a registered stockbroker, doing this just for a short while before deciding that graduate school should be next.
Before moving to Seattle to go to UW Law School, John spent nine months working at law firms in NYC, the last of which was a Wall Street mergers & acquisitions firm, where John got to work on several famous M&A deals side-by-side with top wall street M&A attorneys and investment bankers.
John loves to read books and journals, mostly in the areas of business, technology, science, international relations, history, and politics. When not working or reading, John loves networking/socializing with friends and potential clients, watching movies, playing chess, doing sudoku and kakuro puzzles, and trying to learn the piano.