Utentemrhcooper

I was born in Fargo, ND. When I was just four, my family moved to Minneapolis. I grew up in a pretty typical Midwest family with great parents who cared, excellent teachers and good schools. Math interested me a great deal, but English bored me and I didn’t like to read.

College days at the University of Minnesota focused on playing bridge. This wasn’t exactly the path to a long-lasting career, so I took some time from my studies and headed to Australia to see if it really was the “New Frontier”.

It was. I spent four great months in Sydney. Then, having decided to return to the University of Minnesota, I made my way back home via 1 ½ months of travel through Asia and 3 ½ months in Europe.

I learned how to travel frugally and well, but the most important discovery was that most people around the world are friendly, good people and just want to be left alone by their governments.

A great surprise awaited me in Minneapolis. Five days after returning home, two FBI agents informed me that I had been listed as AWOL. This was, of course, a colossal mistake, but one can’t argue productively with the FBI so I ended up in the army for 19 months. I returned to the U of M and successfully earned my BA and MBA.

While at the University, I was offered a job as Senior Systems Analyst at a bank computer subsidiary and was swiftly introduced to corporate politics. My first project was cancelled; several people to whom I reported were fired. I was “reassigned” to a rather interesting project investigating Trust Packages – a short-lived assignment as my disagreement with the package selection resulted in a rather hasty firing.

It was 1976 and a very difficult time for a systems analyst with just two years experience to find a job. Gambling filled the gap for a while, but didn’t pay the rent. I began to feel the urge to write and tried my hand first at sonnets and then TV scripts. Through a conversation with the producers of one of the popular TV shows at the time, I was invited to submit a script. I quickly responded and, just as quickly, received my first rejection.

Over the years, I tried my hand at real estate, computer timeshare sales, consulting, and as a manservant (with spare time to write, I hoped). The manservant post was not my calling -- taking care of a 15-year-old spoiled “brat” was not my cup of tea, and certainly didn’t leave any time to write.

By necessity, writing hit the back burner and I took a position with another bank computer subsidiary. Corporate politics reared its ugly head again and, after being told numerous lies by the department manager, I walked out, did not look back and returned to Australia.

Since 1981, Australia has been my home. I’ve worked as an Information Systems project manager, consultant, second-in-charge of systems development, and business analyst in computer software and finance. My adventures have allowed me to observe corporate politics at their finest. During these years, it became very clear to me that, if you want to succeed in business, it is more important to be politically correct than to support a good idea.

My interest in writing was rekindled about the time that there was a lot of press about off shoring and corporate corruption. Having had up close and personal experience with this type of corporate behaviour, I decided to create a series of corporate thrillers -- addressing the subject with a touch of humor, a twist in the tale, and subtle symbolism to challenge the reader’s intellect. I created the outlines for four books and started to write.

I hope that you enjoy reading the four thrillers that I’ve published to date. Please do let me know if you have comments and feedback. I’ll appreciate hearing from you.

Henry Cooper
Author and Publisher
Corporate Thrillers Inc.