Bruce Speck starts education consulting firm

Bruce Speck, former president of Missouri Southern State University, has a new business.

In a blog post Thursday, Speck introduced Speck Consulting LLC:

About a year ago, I came to one of those transition points in life. After being a university president for about 5½ years, it was time to think about my next step. Except for 4 years in the U.S. Army and working in industry as a technical writer, my adult life has been dedicated to a career in higher education. For over 30 years, I have worked in higher education as a professor, dean, provost, and president at various universities. As a president, I managed a budget of over $70MM and supervised over 500 employees, staff and faculty. I have significant management experience; over half of those 30 plus years had been spent in administration positions, so some sort of management job seemed a likely fit.

After a year of exploring options and thinking about my prospects, I decided to start Speck Consulting, LLC. I wasn’t exactly sure at the time of the range of services I would offer, but I knew that I had expertise that would be helpful to people who were interested in education. I also have a long history of writing and editing, and helping people with their written documents. I have written books and articles about writing, and I produced articles, pamphlets, reports, and so forth as a technical writer. I taught writing to undergraduates (including ESL students) and graduates; edited theses, dissertations, and publications for colleagues; and consulted in industry, creating documents.

But the breakthrough for me was buying a franchise that offers tutoring to help students be effective in school. Owning a tutoring business is the perfect fit because I can use my knowledge of education to promote student success, and student success is at the core of what I believe is central to any education.