Celebrating the Legacy of a Leader

Promoting All In: Leadership (is a Verb) is complicated. It’s bittersweet in the most profound way. It’s a celebration in the depths of grief. This book is my husband and PointNorth founder Al Schauer’s legacy brought fully to life at the very moment its author can no longer hold it in his hands.

As we move through a year where things feel more complex than ever, and the stakes of good leadership become progressively higher, it feels right to have this conversation.

Al passed away on January 23, 2026. His book is being published 170 days later. The work he poured himself into for fifteen years, the conviction he carried across every chapter, is now in print. In pages you can hold. In words that will outlast us all.

We miss him. We wish he were here to feel the weight of this book in his hands.

Al drew his sense of direction from his grandfather, who he called Pop: his compass, his true north. Pop was steadfast about always doing the right thing, no matter what. This philosophy shaped Al's leadership. It became the foundation of everything. It inspired the title.

Because for Al, leadership was never a half-measure. It was a full commitment: to people, to integrity, to showing up completely.

That commitment was forged early. Al served in the U.S. Navy Seabees in South Korea and Vietnam, and carried those values into every chapter of his life that followed: a 34-year career at MacKay Sposito, Inc., where he rose from employee to partner to President and CEO, and then into retirement, where he founded PointNorth to keep doing the work he loved most: developing leaders. He worked with executives, MBA students, and veterans. He believed, as John Buchan wrote, that "the task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there."

That was the through line of his entire life and it is the through line of this book.

He wrote: "Leadership isn't just a work thing, it's a whole-life thing. And that means that if you want to truly be a great leader, you have to be willing to look at yourself, develop the areas that are lacking, and double down on the ones that you're naturally strong in."

That was Al. Honest about the work. Committed to growth. Unwilling to separate who he was from how he led.

At the heart of this book is a belief he held without wavering: "Leadership is about people. Not products, profit or process. People, and always doing the right thing at the forefront." And the way he believed leaders earn that trust: "A leader with character teaches people how to be rather than telling them what to do."

He lived this. His steadfast character, his generosity, his empathy.

These were not leadership techniques. They were simply who he was.

He made people feel seen. He lifted people up. He guided people toward the right decision without telling them what it should be, and allowed them to discover it for themselves.

All In: Leadership (is a Verb) explores eleven essential qualities of ethical, character-driven leadership, among them character, heart, commitment, courage, empathy, and generosity. None of them are abstract. Every one of them is grounded in the life Al actually lived. And Al wrote this book the way he led, as a mentor, not a lecturer. Al often said, "no matter where you're starting from, no matter what's happened before, everyone has the capacity to lead in some way." That belief, radical in its inclusivity, is completely consistent with who he was and runs through every page.

There is something profound about a book like this arriving now. The publication is bittersweet, yes. But it is also a gift, because Al's voice is in these pages, clear and steady, exactly as it always was.

And in a gesture that is entirely consistent with the man he was, proceeds from the book will be donated to a scholarship launched in Al's name for Veterans at Clark College. A Vietnam Veteran who built a remarkable life on character and service, giving back to those who served is his story coming full circle.

Al was my greatest mentor and my husband. Bringing this book into the world feels like both an honor and a responsibility.

To anyone who knew Al: this book will feel like hearing him again.

To anyone who didn't: you are about to meet someone worth knowing.

All In: Leadership (is a Verb) is available now. Read it. Share it. Lead from it.