Richard Sutz

Richard Sutz Quick Facts

CEO and President of The Literacy Company

Mr. Sutz, the author of Speed Reading For Dummies, has more than forty years of experience in the field of developing programs to teach enhanced reading skills. He has written a White Paper demonstrating that America's national reading curriculum has produced a nation of poor readers. Why? Because current reading instruction effectively stops after third grade when students are taught Oral Reading Skills (the Learn to Read Phase). Yet, 99.9% of all reading requires Silent Reading Skills (the critical Read to Learn phase) which are not being taught in American schools.

Mr. Sutz's breakthrough developments teach Silent Reading Fluency, which are the necessary Read To Learn skills, enabling individuals of all ages to read better and faster with improved comprehension, retention and recall. His vision for The Literacy Company is to have the world's reading curriculums expanded to mandate the teaching of Silent Reading Fluency (Read To Learn skills).

In the 1960's, he was a consultant to Evelyn Wood, founder of Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics®*. His background and experience span executive roles in both the private and public sector.

After military service he began his business career as Assistant Director for Europe and the Middle East for Grumman Aircraft where he was responsible for marketing military aircraft. Later, moving to Scottsdale, Arizona he began his entrepreneurial career focused in the field of energy-related technologies.

In the late 1970s he served as Deputy Director of the Arizona Energy Office, with joint responsibility for Arizona Energy Conservation Programs. He then joined the U.S. Department of Energy as Director of the Energy Related Inventions Program. His entrepreneurial spirit moved him again when he developed a high-performance water-pumping windmill which is unique in that it operates at low wind speeds, pumps to 4,000 feet and desalinates and purifies water. It is currently in production in China and is being marketed worldwide by a Canadian company.

As a Project Officer with the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics he invented a new valve for fighter pilot's oxygen breathing systems that prevents fatal accidents caused by hypoxia (lack of oxygen at high attitudes). He was also the Navy's Project Officer of the first American installation of the Martin-Baker rocket powered ejection seat enabling pilots to eject from the runway on landing or takeoff. For his efforts, he was awarded a Letter of Commendation from the Chief of Naval Operations.

Mr. Sutz has a Bachelor of Science degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a graduate degree in International business from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland.