Linda McIsaac, Ph.D., is a scientist and entrepreneur, one of those
computer geeky types. Growing up, she was a very good student and
was encouraged by her teachers who told her that she should go on to
college. Upon graduation from high school, her father told her that she
should get married and would live happily ever after. However, that was
not what happened in her married life.
Linda decided on college and liked mathematics studying Mobius strips,
differential equations, and other challenging topics. The definition of fun in her world was
learning how car engines worked and drag racing her cars, yet she did not know what kind of
career she would have. All occupations that came to her mind were "engineering-oriented." Yet,
at that time, options for women were secretary, nurse, or teacher. In college, Linda also focused
on the principles for learning and cognition, the transfer of information. She ended up being part
of a nationwide project on re-engineering education with Individual Guided Education at the
University of Wisconsin Madison's Research and Development Center while completing her
Masters and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
After graduation, she served as a Superintendent of Schools, where she struggled to implement
new ideas for the delivery of instruction based on the way students learn best and research on
individualized learning. After her three-year commitment, she left education for the private
sector and started her own computer training company EXPCT with "computer parties" like
Tupperware parties in homes. Subsequently, computer training centers were built to help train
and develop computer applications that helped businesses automate. That company was sold
to Inacom in 1998.
Along with her business partner, Gerry Klodt, they decided that more could be realized by a
better understanding of people, and she established her second company Xyte, Inc. They
discovered that people are born with different natural abilities and developed a way to measure
that based on the way they think. The ongoing product development helps individuals in all
aspects of their lives: career planning, appropriate education programs; business in job
matching, sales, advertising/marketing, management of the employee lifecycle as well as
relationships.
As a "people engineer" person, Linda is committed to reaching as many people as possible and
sharing a technology that will help them answer that age-old question: "Who am I? and Why do I
do what I do?" and apply the natural gifts they were born with to help them find meaning and
purpose.
