Strong Ties: Barclay Simpson: Business, Philanthropy, Leadership, and the Bay Area

Katharine Ogden Michaels

Nov 2021 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Janet Metzger

About this audiobook

An in-depth look at the life of Oakland, California native, Barclay Simpson, Strong Ties focuses on the set of convictions and leadership qualities that allowed Simpson to build a successful business from nothing and to become one of the major philanthropists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Simpson founded Simpson Manufacturing Co, Inc., in 1956, which he grew from a small, artisan business that fabricated metal connectors into a world-wide, publicly-traded company, known throughout the construction industry as a manufacturer of over 4000 distinct, highly engineered products for tying one structural element to another in residential and commercial projects. In building the company, he developed a set of company principles that placed employees at the center of his business. Central to these principles was a compensation system that included broad-based, quarterly profit-sharing along with employee development and education programs that promoted hiring from within the ranks of the company, thereby allowing employees to build life-long careers in which many were able to go from hourly production line labor to management. A story of Barclay Simpson's leadership style as both a business man and a philanthropist, Strong Ties chronicles the astounding continuity between his views on making money, and giving it away.

About the author

Katharine Ogden Michaels is the lead writer of The Gambler, a 1997 dramatic film written in collaboration with famed director Karoly Makk, that won awards at the Brussels, Emden, and Festroia-Troia International Film Festivals. She has regularly published essays in the Literary Quarterly and the Threepenny Review.

AudioFile Earphones Award winner Janet Metzger brings the experience of nearly four decades of theater, film, and television acting to her work as an audiobook narrator. Janet is also an award-winning documentary narrator and a master teacher at Emory University School of Law.