About the Author

Robert Pittenger is the creator and senior editor of the online community wealth forum Wealthipedia (www.wealthipedia.com). He has contributed over fifty articles and book reviews to the site covering topics such as entrepreneurship, investing, and economics.

Pittenger is also the President and founder of Starpoint Software. He founded the company in 1994 to develop and market specialty software for the environmental health and safety industry. The company has grown to support a product line of applications for environmental data management and analysis, software translation, business intelligence, electronic data systems, information technology security, and the company is a global leader in the developing category of compliance management software. Customers include Fortune 500 companies such as Bechtel, Lockheed-Martin, and ExxonMobil, as well as government agencies including the Department of Defense, and Department of Agriculture, with a global presence in over thirty-five countries around the world.

An Ohio native, Pittenger holds a B.A. degree in geology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He also holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering geology from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has worked as a geologist, software developer, businessman, and is also a licensed engineer. His unique perspective on the creation of wealth comes from a rare combination of formal business education, experience as an entrepreneur, the critical-thinking skills and skepticism of a scientist, and the pragmatism and problem-solving skills of an engineer and software developer. In spite of twelve years of college and graduate school, Pittenger never forgets that academic knowledge is of little value if it has no use in the real world.