Alyce All-Stars Featuring Robert Segal

By Mary Matton on July 23, 2021

About this program

The Alyce All-Stars program exists to highlight Alyce Customers and Friends who have mastered the art of “personal experience.”

An All-Star prioritizes Building Rapport, Earning Trust, and Generating Loyalty over making someone feel like just another face in the crowd.

All-Stars challenge the status quo and – while they’re not officially Alyce employees – we consider them an extension of our team. They find creative ways to infuse our core values of Give First, Give Consistently, Be Crafty, Seize the Present, and Unwrap the Possibility into their unique way of doing business.

This week’s All-Star is Robert Segal, North American Sales Director at MSC Software!

Learn More About Robert Segal

Q: Share with us some of your personal interests?
I have three young boys, so I’m at a lot of youth sports games. But I am also a professional sports fan. I’m nerdy at my core so all things technology is an area of interest of mine. I’ve been in the engineering simulation space for 20 years or so and love reading about what people are building in this space. I’m also getting my executive MBA which takes up the rest of my free time.

Q: What was your first screen name?
Wow this was probably my AOL instant messenger screen name which was Burt25. Obviously Burt is just Robert shortened and 25 was my basketball number in high school.

Q: What song is on repeat right now for you?
In the house? Baby Shark and Moana but for me personally Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

Q: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a lawyer, because I argued with everyone about everything. I guess now I get to have conversations and confrontations into non-confrontations through sales so it’s worked out for me.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the place where you live? Why and how do you take advantage of it?
The two are similar. We live in a small town in Massachusetts now that’s similar to the small town outside of Atlanta where I grew up. I love being able to walk up and down the street, or having my kids be able to play in our cul de sac and know everyone in the neighborhood. It’s a tight knit neighborhood as well, so it feels like everyone’s taking care of each other which I love.

Q: What would be the title of your memoir?
“Are You Still Talking”. My wife would definitely agree with that title.

Q: What’s something you consider yourself to be ok at but not great at?
Reading, I love reading but I’m a terribly slow reader so I can’t get through books very quickly. I tend to alternate between thriller mystery kinds of novels or business/self help.

Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
Definitely my family. I love my family and my wife. They’re definitely my greatest gift.

Q: Beach, safari, or forest vacation?
Can I choose none of the above? I love exploring new cities. I love walking entire cities, jumping on the double decker buses and seeing all there is to see in new cities, I feel like I haven’t been to nearly enough and would love to travel more.

Q: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Go to class. I didn’t go to class often enough in college, I didn’t take the opportunity to try to learn when I was at university and I should have gotten more out of that experience that I did.

Q: Would you rather be an olympic gold medalist or win a nobel prize? And why?
Nobel Prize in economics. I find economics fascinating and the way that people use data to understand the world around them and the way that people make decisions.

Q: Are you a morning person or a night owl? How do you like to start your day?
It depends on my phase of life. Right now i’m a night owl because of my MBA program. I think naturally I’m a night person and I used to always say I’m a night owl. Earlier in my life I became a morning person so I could use the time in the morning to be active and workout but I’m usually in my zone between 9 and 11pm because I want to finish up my work so it’s motivating.

Q: How did you meet your childhood best friend?
So I met my first friend, my first best friend Zack. We were three years old, we lived in the same neighborhood so we both belonged to the same pool in the neighborhood.

Q: If you could live through any event in history, what event would that be? Why would you want to live through that event?
I was a history major so this is tough. The American Revolution. Being able to live through a period of time where you’re doing something bigger than yourself and fighting for others and the future of a nation would be really interesting.