Rob’s Writing Journey

Progressively honing his craft through business strategies, articles, non-fiction books, and biographies, led Rob Oberst to try his hand at writing fiction. Similar to his other books, his latest novels in the “Time Traveler Series” are packed with fascinating history and themes that translate to modern times, such as the parallels between our digital revolution and the fifteenth-century’s printing revolution that through the rapid spread of knowledge, similarly, transformed the world, leading to the Renaissance, the Reconquista of Spain by Isabella, the subsequent discovery of America by Columbus, and the Protestant Reformation with Henry the VIIIth.

The “Time Traveler Series” is Rob’s first venture in historical fiction. As a management consultant, he wrote innumerable proposals and reports for S&P 500 organizations to enable them to harness the latest technologies. Over twenty years observing how these digital technologies evolved, curious about how these would continue to evolve over the next twenty years, he wrote his first book “2020 WEB VISION”. This remarkably predicted how they would enhance our homes, businesses and society, especially during the pandemic, which coincidently struck in 2020. Fortunately, the virtual technologies foreshadowed in the book enabled us to continue to work, learn, shop, eat, and socialize safely, thereby saving thousands of lives. “2020 WEB VISION” appeared in over a dozen countries on five continents, in universities such as Harvard, and at research facilities such as Pew.

In the early two-thousands, concerned about the U.S. economy and investments, Rob developed a model that predicted a severe recession in 2008. After the Great Recession, he looked for an overarching cause and found that similar crashes had occurred for over the last 150 years, back to the Civil War, encompassing the Great Depression. A more extensive model showed that these long-term downturns occurred whenever a large generation, such as the greatest generation or the war boom baby generation, retires and withdraws their overwhelming financial force from the nation’s economy. The prescient model contained in “THE FINANCIAL TIME MACHINE” predicted slow growth for the U.S. and other major world economies for over a decade. Several prominent economists acquired this book.

Following his death, Rob discovered his father’s Olympic diary recalling his extraordinary adventure to the “Chariots of fire Olympics” in Paris. Gene was also one of the stars of Notre Dame’s first successful football teams when legendary coach Knute Rockne, the winningest coach in college history, greatly enhanced the university’s standing and reputation. Intrigued by numerous articles in his scrapbook, Rob delved into the era—the “Golden Age of American Sports”, to write “GENE ‘KENUCK’ OBERST”. A second book, “RENAISSANCE OLYMPIAN”, is enhanced by fifty letters between polymaths Gene and Knute, who acquired Gene’s first six coaching position and made it possible for Gene to marry his wife, Catherine and Rob’s existence. It follows Gene throughout his college coaching career as he interacts with the legendary coaches and athletes of the 20th Century and his subsequent time as a popular professor and artist.

Rob’s Professional Bio

Rob possesses a BS in systems analysis and operations research from Miami University, along with an MBA in Policy and Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University. In addition to being a leader in four national/international associations, Rob has been a guest columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has conducted numerous presentations for dozens of universities and management groups on various leading-edge topics. As a management consultant, he served as the regional practice manager for Towers Watson, where he wrote the white paper and business plan and led the marketing efforts to found its successful quarter-billion-dollar systems line of business (2025 dollars).

Earlier, he served as a hospital CIO and project manager for TRW, which launched the first satellite to leave Earth’s orbit, designed the fastest chip and search engine and operated the first worldwide satellite network. TRW also built the rocket engines that flew man to the moon. It is where Bill Gates worked as a teen, and it owned Atari, where Steve Jobs first worked, fueling their prodigious imaginations. While at TRW, Rob constructed its financial models and managed its largest corporate project. He designed and implemented over 60 human resource, healthcare, and financial systems and has consulted on behalf of dozens of S&P 500 companies, including Kraft, Sherwin Williams, Verizon, GE, Toyota, Goodyear, BP, Bank America, JP Morgan Chase, Callaway Golf, Qualcomm, Northrop Grumman, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, Scripps Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. Always on the bleeding edge of technology, Rob learned a couple dozen languages on numerous platforms.