USAMAF Biography Information

Shihan Michael Piaser
Member, Board of Directors
United States (USA) Martial Arts Federation

Shihan Michael Piaser is the Chairman of the USJJF Referees Committee and former President of the United Status Ju-Jitsu Federation. He has been involved in USJJF since it's inception. He refereed at the first JJIF World Cup held in Denmark (1993) as well as subsequent World Championships in Bologna, Italy and Paris, France and Madrid, spain.
Mr. Piaser began his martial arts training in 1973. His first Judo class was in 1974. He is currently a student of Hanshi George Anderson and hold 7th Dan Black Belts in JuJitsu, KwanMuKan Karate-do and Chang Moo kwan Tae Kwan Do. He has a 5th Dan in Kobudo.

He was born in 1958 in Columbus, Ohio. He lived in Texas for a short while but spent most of his childhood in Lakewood, Ohio and Brunswick, Ohio. During his teenage years he lived in Brook Park, Ohio. He took his first martial arts class with Jeff Ellis at a local YMCA and then began training at Nazareth High School with Paul Ornowski. At 16, was the treasurer on the Nazareth Karate Club. He trained or taught five days per week at Nazareth Karate Club and Jeff Ellis' classes at the Berea YMCA. He added a strong knowledge of computer technology and graduated from Midpark High School in 1976.

Shihan Piaser graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer and Information Science from Cleveland State University in 1979. He was a calculus tutor at CSU while he was a freshman. In his junior year, he obtained a job as a Systems Programmer at CSU. In his senior year, he was working full-time as an Applications Programmer and was quickly promoted to Project Manager.

In 1980, Michael began and completed his Master's Degree in Computer and Information Science. He accomplished this in an amazing nine months while working full-time at White Motors as a Computer Programming Consultant. In 1981-1983, Mr. Piaser completed the PhD coursework at Case Western Reserve University while working at Sohio (now BP) and Cook United, Inc as Manager of Technical Services. He worked on two dissertation topics (program verification of COBOL programs and concurrent program verification) but became dismayed at the political nature of the PhD program.

In 1984, he founded the Southeast School of Traditional Karate, Inc. and by the 1990's he was running two successful dojos with 175 students.

In 1985, he joined Management Reports, Inc. (which was subsequently purchased by Intuit, Inc.) where he is now Director of Information Technology. With 300 employees and offices throughout the world, he has spent significant time working abroad.

Mike's daughter, Kelly, was born in 1991. She is a student at Hathaway Brown School. Michael and Kelly have been hiking the Grand Canyon annually since 1997.
In 1995, Shihan Piaser orchestrated the creation of Laser Printing Solutions, Inc. (<www.laserprintingsolutions.com>) LPSI is in the high-speed, variable image printing market and Michael serves as President.

In 2000, Shihan Piaser formed Piaser's Martial Arts, Inc. (solonkarate.hypermart.net) with his senior student Joseph Santocildes.

In February 2005, he was awarded 6th Dan Traditional Kodokan Judo by the United States Ju-Jitsu Federation.

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