Michael Geertsen '85 finds a unique application for spiritual and philosophical values at the U.S. Department of Defense.

By Kevin Amirdjanian '14
The idea that a business and personal model built upon a set of values, both spiritual and philosophical, has a place in governmental affairs sounds a bit nonsensical, at least at first. After all, a government's responsibility is to its people and oftentimes it needs to find less subjective criteria against which to judge how well it is serving the interests of its citizenry.
Yet, Michael Geertsen '85 has gone against this grain in taking up a position as a project manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency within the Department of Defense that is responsible for creating the internet.
The novelty in Geertsen's position at DARPA is evident in his initial approach to his recruitment.
"At first I had no interest in working for the government," he says. "It seemed like a frustrating proposition to try and innovate in a large bureaucracy, especially in a fast-moving technology area like software."
Addressing these concerns, DARPA was able to convince Geertsen that his experience would be quite contrary to what he envisioned.
"DARPA is a terrific, unique agency," he says. "So far, I am thrilled with the jobthey give their program managers a lot of freedom to come up with seemingly impossible technology challenges, plus the resources to try and solve them."
Geertsen's career path is nowhere near the trajectory from studying economics to making his fortune he envisioned when he first began his time at Claremont McKenna College. That plan changed after he took a course with Professor Emeritus Granville Henry during his freshmen year on the topic of science and religion.
Fascinated by the course material, Geertsen was particularly interested in Alfred Whitehead's metaphysics. Whitehead sought to explain that any action, occurrence, or experience is not purely subjective or objective, but a combination of the two. Geertsen found guidance in this as a way to integrate his spiritual views with the demands of the modern world.
He explains, "One of the greatest lessons I took away from my experience at CMC with Professor Henry and Whitehead's Process Philosophy is that we don't need to live with the false dichotomies that Western culture has created. Mental or Physical? Spiritual or Psychological? The recent advances in quantum science and genomics are presenting us with new mysteries that are testing our current dichotomous paradigms."
It was during the process of exploring Whitehead's challenges to traditional dichotomies that Henry introduced Geertsen to computer programming.
In his studies, Geertsen asked this question: Can computer simulation of processes that make up human experiences help us to understand our world in a way we could not otherwise? That subject became the topic of his senior thesis.
"Mike not only tried, however successfully, to integrate computing and philosophy as an intellectual venture," recalls Henry, "but also seemed to take much enjoyment in the process."
This is where, Geertsen says, CMC exerted its greatest influence, providing an opportunity to bridge the gap between computer science and philosophy and to pursue his most intellectually fulfilling course of academic study.
After graduating from CMC, Geertsen joined Microsoft's Simulation Unit as a product planner. His tenure there was a time of great personal and spiritual growth as he married, prepared to have children, and advanced his career. He also began to question traditional business methods and wanted to create something of his own.
The result, Depiction Inc., which now engineers mapping software for the U.S. Department of Defense, represented not only Geertsen's first foray into entrepreneurship, but also a testing ground for an innovative new business model. Any entrepreneur will claim that there are certain rules that can never be broken when starting a business, especially blurring the line between business and personal relationships. The first rule of involving friends and family members in your business, says Geertsen, is that you never involve friends and family members in your business.
However, in an act of entrepreneurial sacrilege, Geertsen co-founded Depiction with his brother-in-law and his close friend. The three men faced many hurdles in creating an environment conducive to work and innovation. It was important to separate the business discussion from the personal discussion, and to understand their impact on each other.
The success of the business model was in question from its inception, yet Geertsen chose to accept the challenge because he believed that the traditional standard against which it was held was not set in stone. It is this uncertainty that he has not only come to accept, but embrace. This leap of faith stems, he says, from his following of the historical Jesus Christ, which "forces me to live with more mystery."
"It is humbling and a bit sobering to think that the software you are creating might one day save the lives of our military personnel or help stop an attack from one of our adversaries," he says, reflecting on the real-life outcomes of his work.
It is in this way that Geertsen combines the spiritual and philosophical to create a basis for both business and personal dealings. In describing the ways in which he has sought to understand the interplay of spirituality and philosophy in his life, Geertsen made it clear that he does not intend for any of his statements to be taken as normative. In fact, he eschews idealized standards or models in favor of independent thinking.
"Whether working for Microsoft, my software start-up, or a government agency," he says, "my values or ethics are simply a reflection of who I am at that stage in life. As a follower of the historic Jesus, I look at his life of love, patience, sacrifice, service, and valuing of deep relationships over all the competing distractions and ambitions around him."