Team Member of the Month: Steve Tanruther
VP, CFO & MVP
Steve is the true renaissance man within the Rock The House team! Having daily job responsibilities that range from chief advisor to founder/owner Matt Radicelli, managing the full financial state of the company, as well as being the IT guru and Technology expert. Steve also chooses to expand his role away from his desk by spending time in the warehouse, on events, and side by side mentoring staff members. He is one of the few people on this earth that that has the ability to walk his dogs and read 3 or 4 newspapers before breakfast, finish a very completed Profit / Loss Statement by lunch and then spend his afternoon 40′ in the air rigging chain motors for a large event in order to give the rest of the team a break, before a quick trip the Aikido Studio for a work out, a bite to eat at a new upcoming restaurant and then to House of Blues to rock out to a great band, and despite what Steve says about his dancing skills, anyone who has joined him for a night a Mega-80’s knows that he can bust a move with the best of them. We can’t even fit all of that in a sentence without it being a high run-on but Steve makes it all seem effortless.
October is always one of the busiest months of the year at Rock The House, and this year was busier them most. Steve made sure to embrace his role as SR VP by setting an excellent example for all staff by working hard to complete his day to day tasks and also stepping in to help all other departments. By participating in sales meetings, stopping to pick up equipment on his way from and too work, and helping to project manage events on the weekend he shows everyone that a title doesn’t exclude you from doing things outside your responsibilities. Through all this month he wasn’t just “doing” but he was stopping to teach, advise, and mentor newer staff members in the process working to build a stronger more well rounded RTH team.
We hope that staff members see what it is like to truly love what you do and to always keep your skills well honed. Steve spends most of his time in the office because that is where he is needed. Its second nature to jump in a lift to hang a lighting truss, mix a few microphones from a mixing console he has never seen, and has no problem helping with event positions that may not be the most glamorous, like running feeder, or packing a truck.
They say an elephant doesn’t forget, well we would put any elephant up head to head against Steve in a contest of institutional memory. He has been around from day one, and had a long career in AV before Rock The House. He is the guy on the team who had been there and done and makes sure we learn from the mistakes of the past. RTH Founder/Owner Matt Radicelli met Steve when he was leading the electric slide at a Twinsburg High School Dance in the early 1990’s. After a short conversation, Matt realized that Steve was also a touring sound engineer. For a company like Rock The House that spends almost even time working on Production and Entertainment you must have a leadership team that has spend time within each department. We at RTH also pride ourselves as a technology based company, and Steve makes sure to always stay on the cutting edge of technology from custom building the RTH server to managing all of the soft and hardware for all staff members, laptops, mobile devices, and work stations.
One question we ask ourselves of those we are considering for the Team Member of the Month is: “How does this person go above and beyond for Rock The House?” COO/Creative & Talent Director, Ryan Konikoff attempts to answer this one when it comes to Steve:
“If you would ask Steve this, he would say there is no such thing as going above and beyond, when something needs to be done, someone does it. If he is there he’ll do it – that’s how we grow and get better….so maybe that answers the question.”
Congratulations, Steve! You are the team member of the month on the busiest month of our busiest year…so far!