Chairman and CEO, Lawrence M. Sherman
Larry is the founder and Chairman of Value-Security Company, LLC. He is the inventor of the MultiLife™ and MoreLife-EasyRider™ family of products, and Bucket Savings™. He is also the inventor of EasyCap® and EasyFloor® and founder and Chairman of the United States Guaranty Corporation (USGC) which has sold fail-safe interest rate protection products to community, regional and money center banks since 1988.
Larry co-founded and was, for 25 years (1965 to 1990), the Managing General Partner of Cambridge Research and Development Group (CRDG). CRDG grew into an internationally recognized new-product research, development and licensing firm. CRDG sold and licensed products invented by Larry, his brother Ken, Universities like MIT, and many others, to companies such as Bristol Myers, Sony, GE, P&G, ITT and many others. CRDG also licensed its inventions to a number of start-ups (e.g. GENTEST -now a division of Becton, Dickinson). Each start-up was organized by CRDG specifically to make and market one of CRDG's inventions. Larry also conceived of, co-founded, and built Cambridge Industries, a profitable, highly diversified, group of industrial and technical companies each acquired and grown to support CRDG's R&D activities. In addition, Larry and CRDG seed-funded and incubated Decision Resources, creators of ChartMaster, MapMaster, and other successful products. Decision Resources was the world's leading business graphics microcomputer software company when it was successfully sold to Ashton-Tate not many years after it was founded.
At Columbia University's Graduate School of Business Administration from 1992 to 1999, Larry served as the principal Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, and received the highest student ratings. Larry has also served for many years on the boards of advisors of a number of new product company start-ups, some of which were founded by Columbia MBA graduates he taught and/or advised.
As an inventor, Larry's inventions have been honored with numerous US and Foreign patents, and awards including two IR 100 awards and the Technology 100 Award. His many inventions and developments range all the way from serious medical products (including his OvuGuide® Fertility Indicator, pill dispenser, and an iPhone EKG) to toys, like the Skipsy Doodle.
Larry served for 15 years as a member of the Governing Corporation of Babson College. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of The Harvard Business School Alumni Association, served as the internationally elected Treasurer of the Brandeis University Alumni Association, and served with his wife, as the Chaircouple of the Colgate University Parents Committee, for which they both received Colgate University's highest honor, the Maroon Citation. Larry also received Brandeis University's Honored Alumni award. Larry was a founding director and the chairman of the audit committee of Oppenheimer's ($900 million in 1987 dollars) Quest for Value Dual Purpose Fund (on the NY Stock Exchange), and served for many years as a member of the United States-Israel Bi-National Advisory Council on Industrial Research and Development. During Larry's tenure, this council founded "BIRD" - the highly successful international product development foundation.
Larry served for 15 years as a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit summer camp, Camp Avoda, in Middleboro Mass. And, Larry also served on the Board of The Educational Opportunities Fund (EOF). EOF provided partial scholarships to fund tuitions for selected campers at Camp Interlocken (New Hampshire), and for participants in its multiple worldwide "Crossroads" programs.
Larry received an A.B. degree in Psychology from Brandeis University in 1960, was then the sole lab technician in a small prestigious post-doc genetics research lab at Brandeis from 1960 to 1961, took more chemistry courses at Boston University, participated in the MBA program at Babson College from 1961 to 62, received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1964, and in 1994 became a Price-Babson College Fellow. Larry served in the U.S. Army Reserve as the acting division medic at Camp Drum. Larry was a licensed private pilot, and certified scuba diver, and is still an active downhill skier.