Bob Culmer earned his bachelors degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970, and with a strong background in English and Physics, began as a technical writer. He soon moved to the team that developed Lone Star Gas Company's first HRIS, and headed the development of the personal employee benefits statement.

After several compensation and benefits management positions with ENSERCH Corporation organizations, he joined Peat Marwick Mitchell (now KPMG) as an executive compensation consultant. While at Peat Marwick he managed their $.25 million oil and gas survey of compensation and benefits from design through production. These were two of its most profitable years.

At Santa Fe Minerals he developed their first compensation program and made innovations to allow it to quickly incorporate the many small company acquisitions Santa Fe was making. Later Bob worked on the expatriate compensation as well as tax policy design and implementation for Santa Fe's international parent company.

He has developed successful compensation plans in a variety of industries, from base pay through incentive reward programs. The hallmark of these plans has been effective use of resources and simplicity of administration and communication.

Bob has given talks on the uses of computers in compensation, selling HR programs to top management and other topics in compensation and Human Resources to various business groups and chambers of commerce, including the Texas Assoc of Businesses and Chambers of Commerce, and The American Business Clubs. He has been a speaker at the Southwest Region Conference of the Society of Human Resource Management, and introduced speakers at the national conference of the American Compensation Association (now regrettably known as 'WorldAtWork'). [See Talks] He has developed and taught a variety of courses on wage and salary administration, bonus and incentive plans, benefits, payroll and budgeting for Richland College's Continuing Education Department. Bob was a regular guest on television discussing compensation on "The Business Place". He was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Compensation Association in 2000. He has been an independent consultant since 1991.

Active in the business and compensation professional communities, Bob is a member of WorldAtWork (American Compensation Association), and the North Texas Compensation Association. He is a member of the Ambassadors Committee for the Plano Chamber of Commerce, Past Chair of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors and Past President of the Dallas Business Association, a group for business owners that was founded in 1973. Fulminata was named small business of the month at the Plano Chamber of Commerce.

ROBERT T CULMER

SUMMARY

Experienced compensation professional with strong analytical, innovative and communications skills including development of base compensation programs, sales incentive and bonus compensation plans. Extensive experience with PC's, spreadsheets and databases.

PRESIDENT/FOUNDER - FULMINATA ASSOCIATES

1991 - Present

• Assessed potential competitive impact on expatriate compensation with adoption of tax equalization and helped shape tax policy implementation.
  This policy eliminated the windfall expatriates in high foreign tax locations were getting at a savings of $1.9 million to the company, while eliminating tax policy as an incentive/disincentive element of the compensation.
• Developed models for labor burden on domestic and international projects for client bids.
• Updated base pay and developed incentive compensation plans for various small to medium size clients.
  The sales compensation plan for a small seller of Internet advertising was set too high and did not encourage the addition of new sales. Recommendations cut the cost of sales by over 20% while doubling total sales revenue over the next year.
  Developed detailed spread sheets for salary review that allocated the overall salary increase budget to departments, allowing the merit matrix to function appropriately.
  Developed and illustrated a concept for a long term incentive that would mirror the operation of stock options for a privately held company.
• Developed first base compensation program for a start up telecommunications company.
• Designed and conducted compensation surveys for clients.
• Coordinated payroll system conversion, developed reports and models to track essential compensation data.
• Created a budget system for a commercial property management company.
  The system was constrained to work with standard spread sheets as a "stop gap" measure for one year. It was actually used for three years before a more sophisticated database system was adopted.
• Developed a database driven system for a bank to track its market hedge operations in the home mortgage industry.
• Created a combined database and spreadsheet system to analyze the value of deposits held by the client bank, and its potential acquisitions.
• Developed and taught Wage & Salary Administration, Bonus & Incentive Plans, Benefits Administration, Payroll Basics and Budgeting for Richland College's Continuing Education Program.
• Gave presentations and seminars on pay practices for chambers of commerce, Southwest Regional SHRM Conference, and other organizations.
• Regular compensation expert on "The Business Place" television show, seen on DCTV.
• Wrote and produced an hour long instructional tape on "Basics of Better Pay Policies for Small Businesses."
• Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Compensation Association.

SANTA FE MINERALS - Compensation Manager

1983 - 1991

• Developed, implemented and administered Santa Fe's first base compensation program.
• Developed a PC based human resource database and reporting system for Santa Fe Minerals, its first.
• Administered the company's phantom override program for explorationists.
• Recommended several incentive programs for non-explorationist personnel.
  Downturn in the oil and gas industry prevented any of these plans from being adopted.
• Designed a series of spreadsheets for various benefit and human resource functions resulting in significant time savings.
• Ensured Human Resource Department data handling, reports and other informational needs were met through two payroll conversions.

PEAT MARWICK MITCHELL - Sr Consultant

1981 - 1983

• Managed a $.25 million salary, incentive and executive compensation survey for Peat Marwick, wrote sections interpreting the results and highlighting the trends as well as designed all the graphics and presentation format.
• Developed base, incentive and executive compensation programs for clients in a variety of industries, including: finance, insurance, oil & gas, and the public sector.
• Created computer spreadsheets to model and analyze the operation and financial impact of executive compensation plans, saving significant time over manual determinations and enhancing client understanding.

ENSERCH CORPORATION and subsidiaries

1970 - 1981

• Designed and administered qualified and non-qualified employee benefit plans for all levels of employees.
• Detailed involvement in the in-house design of Lone Star Gas' first Human Resource Information System.
• Headed the project to create Lone Star Gas' first personalized employee benefits statement.
• Developed detailed benefit administration manuals which dramatically reduced training time for new clerical administrators and ensured consistency.
• Rewrote and redesigned employee benefit handbooks and coordinated their design and publication, including a bilingual (English-Spanish) set for operations in south Texas.

Education: BA, Carnegie-Mellon University - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Affiliations: American Compensation Association (now unfortuantely known as WorldatWork), North Texas Compensation Association, Plano Chamber of Commerce.

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ASSOCIATES

A network of professionals and referrals are used as associates for consulting engagements where special experience or additional staff are required. Approximately a dozen different associates have been used on a contract or temporary basis over the years, and a network of related professionals numbering several dozen is currently in place. It is one of our strongest beliefs that anyone brought into an engagement must meet the our high standards of professionalism and client satisfaction.

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Fulminata Associates
P O Box 571301
Dallas, TX 75357-1301
(214) 321-5191

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