HCRI Alumnus Sander A. Flaum
Role Model for Fluency, Role Model for Success

Sander A. Flaum Managing Partner & CEO Flaum Partners Chairman, Fordham Leadership Forum Fordham Graduate School of Business

HCRI alumnus Sander Flaum is an accomplished business leader, successful author, and served on the Institute’s board of directors. Here he shares a key turning point on his journey with fluency and the impact HCRI stuttering therapy has had on his life. Mr. Flaum has generously created the Rose Flaum Scholarship to honor his mother and help others who stutter realize their full potential and joy in life.

As a stutterer since childhood, I knew I had to work smarter and harder than fluent speakers to be successful in everything from school to career. I tried many different types of therapy over the years to address my stuttering. The results were either disappointing or temporary. As a young adult, I heard about HCRI and the Institute’s scientific approach to therapy. I decided to give it a try and went for treatment. For the first time, I was taught life-long skills that enabled me to speak fluently.

With my new-found communication abilities and a continuing drive for excellence, Iwas able to excel through the ranks of a global corporation. One day, I was told by a Human Resources representative that I would soon be appointed to head up the company. Yet, when it came time for the board of directors to vote, they chose someone else to fill the position.

It was a tremendous blow – especially since I had turned down a lucrative job offer on the assurance that I was in line for the big job. I left the company and put my expertise and success strategies to work for another organization; this time it was an advertising agency.

One day, shortly after I left, I received a call from a board member from my former company. He was diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer and wanted to meet with me right away. He wanted me to know something before he passed away. In our conversation, he revealed that he had resigned because one board member, who had heard my stuttering speech before HCRI treatment, convinced others that my stuttering was a symptom of mental illness and I could not be trusted to lead the company.

I was shocked by the news and resolved that day to prove my abilities by making my current company the best in the world. Fifteen years later, the organization rose to the top of the ad agency world and I had accomplished my goal.

I am a stutterer and am always going to be a stutterer. I am fluent most of the time because I practice each day the techniques I learned at HCRI. We must use what we have. I believe the miracle is in each of us to succeed.

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