Paul Barlock: Marine Corps officer turned businessman. Started in the defense industry, became a telecom power broker at TPS and Advance Power. Now president and COO at power solutions developer Alpha Technologies. Living proof that old soldiers don't always fade away.

My background is rooted in the military. I went for an undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh and after graduation entered the Marine Corps as a pilot. Shortly after entering the Marine Corps, I forgot all the four years of physics I learned.

I spent the first five years of my professional career as an officer and aviator, and that was probably the most significant formation of my management style, as well as my technology base. I flew in an electronic warfare squadron, so we were aviators, but we also dealt a lot in the technology of the time.

After almost six years of aviation, I went back for an MBA, where I learned to talk business. After leaving business school, I went to work for a defense electronics firm called Eldec, here in Seattle. That's where I started out in technology. Then, in the late 1980s, I transitioned over to the commercial side of it. I worked in telecom in marketing and program management roles, focusing on the emergence of deregulated telephony at a company called Elgen.

I was at Elgen for about three years, then went to work for a company called TDI. There I negotiated some contracts and started a division called Telecommunications Power Systems, or TPS. We started with three employees, focusing on selling power equipment to the telecom industry, particularly to the cellular industry, which at the time was just starting to blossom. I managed that from '92 to '97, then I had an opportunity to move to the U.K. to run a company called Advance Power.

Alpha recruited me to take over the role of president and chief operating officer, and it was the perfect job for me. The company was escalating in size, and it was going back to what I did in the U.K., which was managing an international company in a variety of industries. I'm having a fun time.

Even after I started a professional career in technology, I stayed flying in the military. I retired as a lieutenant colonel with the reserves in 1994 — I continued to fly jet aircraft through 1986, then served in a variety of military technology posts.

The Marine Corps teaches the discipline and leadership principles necessary to form a team, and to accomplish missions and goals. Leadership is dependent on the strength of the team, and if you take a very average group of people and form them into a strong team, they're much more than average. Leadership and teamwork have to be strong for any organization to be successful.