MidwestBusiness.com: Midwest Business & Technology News
CHICAGO This week, prominent technology advisor Dick Reck follows his passion to manage a rock band. Also in this week’s Reporter’s Notebook, we break down the Chicago venture capital that fueled TicketsNow before its $265 million acquisition by Ticketmaster and remind VC-worthy companies in the region to submit their plans for the Midwest Venture Summit in March.
After spending 30 years advising several of Chicago’s most prominent technology companies as a partner with KPMG, Dick Reck today is as likely to focus on R&B as he is P&L (profit and loss).
The guy who helped Andrew Filipowski take Platinum Technology, Inc. public and later sell the software company to Computer Associates for more than $3.5 billion in 1999 is now happy to work for relative beer money as the manager of the decades-old country rock band Heartsfield.
It is not very financially rewarding, but it is a labor of love, said Reck, 58, who left KPMG in 2002. I’m an old rock and roller from the 1960s. I set aside music for 30 years.
MidwestBusiness.com: Midwest Business & Technology News
Though Reck first saw Heartsfield play live in the 1970s, he didn’t meet the band’s frontman (Perry Jordan) until a few years ago. Heartsfield has performed live with the likes of Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and more recently Lyle Lovett.
The group mostly plays in the Chicago area at places like FitzGerald’s in Berwyn and the Beverly Arts Center of Chicago.
Reck does everything from helping the band book gigs to pushing for the release of its next CD. He added: Making music is like painting with oils and writing code. You just need to say “done”. Perry has a number of songs that are really good. We just need to finish them and put our marketing plan together.