More About the Author
Bohdan Olgierd Szuprowicz
Biographical Sketch
Szuprowicz became an orphan at birth when his mother died from an infection following cesarean delivery. Her family kidnapped him and accused the father of poisoning his wife with the aid of a lover, a pharmacist. When a post-mortem confirmed their innocence, the baby was retrieved from a backward village in Lithuania. Bohdan grew up in a military compound where his father served as an artillery officer.
He became a true "child of war" when the Germans bombed the military bases of his native Grodno on the first day of WWII. The family evacuated with military convoys that were strafed by German aircraft and harassed by pro-Soviet terrorists until they reached the relative safety of Romania.
During his formative years Bohdan grew up on the beaches of Cote d'Azur inVichy France. He gained notoriety at that time as an unruly child who tore down Hitlerite posters promoting collaboration. When the Germans occupied the entire country after allied invasion of North Africa, the family escaped across the Pyrenees into Spain, where they were arrested and interrogated by Franco's pro-Nazi security services. Eventually they reached Lisbon and boarded a flying boat clipper for a night flight across the German-controlled Bay of Biscay to Ireland. After a brief internment in England as foreign aliens the family was able to rejoin the father already serving in allied forces in the UK.
As a teenager Szuprowicz attended several schools in Scotland where he matriculated and was invited to a reception in honor of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. His political statement at the time was to tear down a Soviet flag displayed on Princes Street during the first Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama, in protest of postwar treatment of Poland by the allies.
He engaged in farming with his father in East Anglia, but was soon on the move to London where he worked his way through the university. He also traveled in Europe to visit U. S. -backed Free Europe institutions engaged in Cold War propaganda and observed the Arab independence uprisings in Tangier and Morocco.
In 1957 he left for Canada, where he worked in the aircraft industry. Soon after the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite, he was recruited by Boeing in Seattle. Later he joined General Dynamics and IBM, whence he moved to the Center for Economic and Industrial Research Inc. headquartered in Washington DC. He began writing articles about progress of automation in many industries and became the editor of High Technology West, a subsidiary of the newspaper California Business in Los Angeles. This was followed by a round-the-world trip to evaluate computerization in many countries of Africa, Australasia and Europe and included a special visit to Vietnam to observe use of information technology under wartime conditions.
He founded the 21st Century Research consultancy and collaborated with Chase Manhattan Bank in setting up a market research operation to evaluate opportunities in China, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He traveled frequently to those areas and crossed Checkpoint Charlie to East Berlin on several occasions. He also toured South Africa to observe apartheid environments and met with independence fighters in Namibia. His work on network planning earned him an invitation to present it at the International Symposium on Operations Research for Developing Countries in Paris.
As a result of his experiences and research into geopolitics, he published "Doing Business with People's Republic of China" and "How to Avoid Strategic Materials Shortages" with John Wiley & Sons, as well as "How to Invest in Strategic Metals" with St. Martin's Press. He also published "Multimedia Networking" with McGraw-Hill, which included Japanese and Korean editions and "Multimedia Tools for Managers" with AMACOM. He collaborated for several years with Computer Technology Research, which published corporate reports on Internet and networking technologies.
For several years Szuprowicz was managing editor of several newsletters on Internet technology applications and a columnist for Financial Sentinel, Moneyworld and other magazines. He also published "Supergrowth Technology USA," an investment newsletter, and consulted with many corporations on technology markets.
He also published hundreds of articles worldwide in journals such as Les Affaires, Atlanta Constitution, Australian Financial News, Barron's Weekly, Bull & Bear, Business South Africa, California Business, Canadian Business, China Business Review, Christian Science Monitor, Computerworld, Denver Post, Dun's Review, Eurofinance, Financial Post, Investment Dealers Digest, IPO Reporter, Japan Economic Journal, National Investment & Finance of India, Newsday, Newsweek International, New Scientist, Oficinas, Singapore Times, Skrzydlata Polska, Usine Nouvelle, Wall Street Microinvestor, Wall Street Transcript, ZeroUno and many others.
He has been a frequent speaker, panelist and moderator at international conventions, symposia and conferences. He holds a BS degree from the Imperial College of Science and Technology of the University of London. He also did postgraduate work in journalism and management at Columbia University in New York and UCLA in California.
Szuprowicz is an active member of the Sarasota Fiction Writers Club, British Schools and Universities Club, the Schiehallion Club of Kinloch Rannoch, and was previously a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
For additional information contact:
21st Century Research
462 Lake of the Woods Drive, Venice, FL 34293-4144, USA
Tel: 941-496-7782, Fax: 941-496-7792
E-mail: maska5@comcast.net
