About Jamil

BIO/RESUME?

Since I haven't needed to provide a job resume forever I've put these paragraphs together to provide an overview of myself in case I need to get the job of working with the right people.

I was born in Washington, D.C. to a 1st generation Palestinian refugee father and a 3rd generation Minnesota Swede. After I graduated early from St. Paul's Highland Park High School I went to work in a foundry so that I could buy music gear, especially guitars. I did that for a couple of years until I got injured thanks to a bucket of hot castings that melted my shoes and burned my legs. I soon changed course and eventually made my way back to the U of M (I had attended elementary school there until they closed it), where I spent more than 30 years as an IT manager and director. I was lucky being in the right place at the right time with the advent of the microcomputer. I was involved with building and running more than 100 computer classrooms and labs benefiting innumerable students. By the time I retired I had hired more than 1000 staff who worked with me (emphasis on with). I also taught a computer class to international students who came to the U of M to study agriculture. A couple of my proudest moments included winning the annual Dean's Award from the College of Design, which I received for fiercely promoting the necessary educational technologies in the school's curriculum to supplant the archaic ones. I was the only person from outside of the college to ever win that award. I also received the Department of Disability Services annual award for providing technology to all students in the need of adaptive technologies in ways that would allow them to be treated the same as everyone else (yes, this was a huge change).

At the same time, and because of my love for music, I also played in a band, The Smokin' J's (double entendre as the first incarnation of the band had JJ, JC, and AJ), doing shows almost every weekend around the Midwest. We recorded a CD that got major airplay on several local radio stations. (I'm no longer in a band so now I play everything on my recordings.) And, I concurrently managed a vintage guitar store in St. Paul called Pete’s Guitar. At Pete’s I personally spent time with and sold guitars and related gear to everyone from AC/DC, Jeff Beck, The Clash, Bob Dylan, Heart, Metallica, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, U2, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Who, ZZ Top, and numerous others. I also met Freddie Mercury and Prince. It was an amazing time and an unbelievable learning experience that I could never replicate today. Thankfully, my son Gabriel shares my love of music and has been the brains behind the recording studio technology that we've been using.

I have also founded and chaired 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations that supported parents and children. I would love to do that again where profits from the musical and artistic ventures I'm involved with contribute to charity.  It's because of all I've done and where I am now that I work to help other artists. I feel that this is not a choice, but a calling as I try to turn the intense and growing fear that I have for the future of this planet and its inhabitants into hope, with Talepieces being a brand. As you may know, a tailpiece on a guitar anchors the strings to the body of a guitar, so Talepieces is a play on that involving stories and music.