Andras Grof

I'm really enjoying Andy Grove's memoir, Swimming Across, especially the poignant memory of having to change his name -- his mother teaching him at 5 years old to stop using his Jewish-sounding name and go by a Christian invented name or risk death.

After reading about his harrowing experiences growing up, I can't think of a better person to lead us through these difficult economic times -- another reason I'm thrilled he'll be at the Cupertino conference.

Here's a bit from the Amazon review: Andrew Grove has earned fame and fortune as chairman and cofounder of Intel. But, we learn from this remarkable memoir, he began life under very different circumstances, narrowly escaping the Holocaust and the closing of the Iron Curtain. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1936, Grove--then called Andras Grof--grew up in a modestly prosperous, secular Jewish family. Through foresight and sheer good fortune, they avoided the fate of many of their fellow Jews, fleeing the Nazis into the countryside and living in a dark cellar in which "the sound of artillery was a continuous backdrop." Under the Communist regime that followed, Grove distinguished himself as a student of chemistry and was seemingly destined for a comfortable position in academia or industry--until revolution broke out in 1956 and he found himself in that cellar once again. -- Amazon.com