About Harley Lippman

Harley Lippman is founder and chief executive officer of Genesis10.

Since starting Genesis10 in 1999, Lippman has been instrumental in developing preferred vendor relationships with such notable corporations as Citigroup, Sprint PCS, Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual. Under his direction, Genesis10 has been rated a class above other vendors at such clients as JP Morgan/Chase and Principal Financial Group. In 2002, Ernst & Young awarded Lippman its Entrepreneur of the Year award in the consulting category.

When Lippman founded Genesis10, he invited 12 former key employees from his previous company to come work for him at pay cuts of 50 to 80 percent while taking no salary himself. Even though he had few clients, and he asked these key employees to leave established companies while being wooed by dot-coms, 10 agreed to join Lippman — the "10" of Genesis10.

Astonished by their willingness to join him, Lippman described this as a moment of truth. "I realized that they had trust in our ability to succeed as a team. I became aware that, if there had been no trust in me, I could have offered them twice what they were earning, and still no one would have come on board."

Genesis10 exceeded Lippman’s expectations — and continues to do so. Its revenues have shot up from $6.9 million in 1999 to nearly $134 million in 2006. The company now has more than 1800 consultants and 100 employees nationwide.

Read Harley's personal story of perseverance here.
(PDF file — 7 pages)