The Creative Mind Behind XB -
Roger Putzel, Ph.D. 

Roger Putzel grew up in Washington, D.C., in a neighborhood that changed constantly as administrations and diplomats arrived and departed. In his XB manual, you will find traces of his philosophy major at Yale, whence he graduated so long ago that you could still use ‘whence.’ Two years’ service in the US Peace Corps in Sénégal stirred him to learn management. After a masters, specializing in Organization Development at MIT’s Sloan School, he went to UCLA to do a PhD.

In the XB Manual you will encounter the re-invented classroom, but it was not the first social structure Dr. Putzel thought up. In Montréal, he worked for several years redesigning and testing a way of weaving language learning into workplace activities in order to improve the relations between English and French speakers and to facilitate social change. 

Then came his teaching career. Dr. Putzel taught at The University of California, Riverside, Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) at the University of Montréal, McGill University, Boston College, and, for more than 25 years, St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where he developed XB.

Retired from teaching – but not from XB – Dr. Putzel lives in Jericho, Vermont, where he and his wife, Georgette, both active in civic projects, are trying to reduce their carbon footprint by driving cars powered by vegetable oil, growing vegetables, generating electricity with solar panels, and heating the house with wood pellets.

Dr. Putzel welcomes doodles, ideas, and other e-mail from XB participants. Please send to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .