Janet Tokerud

I grew up in Salem, Oregon in a family of 6. Salem is the capital of Oregon. A very quiet sort of place with the main business being government. Not much industry - at most canneries for all the fruits that grow in the Willamette Valley.

I have 2 older brothers and a younger sister. I was a tomboy probably thanks to the brothers. My sister followed suit and also became a tomboy. Being a middle child and girl, I settled comfortably into the role of goodkid and peacemaker.

My parents were smart, athletic and not very intellectual. Their greatest intellectual expression was playing Bridge and perhaps my mom's outrageously large vocabulary. In my family, a child was not naughty, he or she was obstreperous. My Dad was a bridge engineer and my Mom was a full-time Mom until we got into school and she started doing stints as a stenographer and committee clerk at the state legislature.

Being a tomboy, I chafed at the restrictions and lack of encouragement to make something of myself. Like many kids, I had dreams of being rich and famous. First it was as a singer like Elvis and then it was as some kind of scientist or explorer.

Straight-A student. Graduated from South Salem High School. Won the Oregon State High School Girls Tennis Championship.

Started college at a tiny experimental school, New College, in Sarasota, Florida. Spent my first year and a half there. Studied Psych/Philosophy. Transferred back to Portland State U in Oregon midway through my sophomore year. Graduated with a B.S. in Psychology.

Moved to Berkeley, CA. Hoping to one day be a college professor, but got disillusioned when my idealized image of academia didn't match reality. Got an M.A. in Sociology with an emphasis on Urban Sociology at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, CA.

Did some government planning and evaluation work for a while - still idealistic but that didn't last long. Had to temper my evaluations to accomodate local politics, so switched gears towards the private sector.

Worked in downtown San Francisco as an applications consultant with corporate workgroups for Control Data Business Information Services division - 5 years.

MBA U.C. Berkeley with an emphasis in Marketing.

Started my own database consulting business in 1986. My MBA project was a business plan for my new company. Decided to focus on creative services businesses because I was attracted to design and wanted to base my work on the Macintosh platform. I chose FileMaker as my database tool. Became the Tokerud Consulting Group in 1989 when Kathy "Scout" Tomyris joined the firm.

Developed my first software product for creative services in 1987. The initial version was in Excel. But quickly we migrated to FileMaker. We've really grown the software business - the product is called Studio Manager - in the last five years so that it is our main source of revenue now.