Fr. Bernard McCoy, O.Cist.
Chaplain, Catholic Business Journal
CEO of LaserMonks, Inc.
Prior, Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian Abbey
Sparta, Wisconsin

http://www.LaserMonks.com

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Fr. Bernard McCoy, O.Cist. is the superior of the Cistercian Abbey in Sparta, Wisconsin. He is also founder and CEO of LaserMonks.com, a nationally renowned e-commerce office supplies company. In addition, as Executive Director for the Torchlight Foundation, he oversees the national and international charitable works of the Abbey and LaserMonks. Fr. Bernard’s academic background includes astrophysics, classical liberal arts, philosophy, classical and modern languages, mystical and monastic theology and spiritual formation. He is also a pilot, member of the National Association of Priest Pilots, an equestrian and facilitator in Equine Assisted Retreats,international scuba diver and sailor. He speaks extensively throughout the country on spirituality and business, as well as social entrepreneurism.

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For those who want more details:  Fr. Bernard McCoy, O.Cist., is the dynamic Cistercian monk pioneer behind LaserMonks, Inc., an e-business offering heavily discounted premium imaging and office supplies to corporate America, individuals and nonprofit organizations. The business was launched as a means of supporting Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian Abbey. It exploded. In three years, gross sales jumped from $2,000 to $2.8 million (2004).

Fr. Bernard was named one of Fast Company magazine’s “Fast50” innovators for 2004. He has been featured on ABC World News Tonight, on Chicago’s WGN-TV, in countless publications including Entrepreneur, Wired,SlashDot, on the national wires of Associated Press, Reuters and CNS, in newspapers nationwide, and on business talk shows from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, to the Netherlands and Great Britan.
But for all this success, the monks’ core business model has remained constant. The monks are faithful to their vocation, chanting the Divine Office in Gregorian Chant throughout the day and praying for others. Customers are treated in accord with a 900-year-old monastic tradition of hospitality. All remaining profits, after providing for the monks’ modest living expenses and the cost of doing business, are used to help charitable works around the world. The monks also launched TorchLight, a foundation created to help empower others to “pass on the torch of kindness” by providing venture capital for good works.

In addition to the LaserMonks story, Fr. Bernard has a fascinating personal journey to the Catholic Faith that took him from his hometown of Mayberry, North Carolina, at the age of 16, to study astrophysics at Georgia Tech. In less than a year he found himself a freshman studying the Great Books at Thomas Aquinas College in California. Although studies at the Catholic Great Books college are rigorous, the young entrepreneur managed to run an import/export business from his dorm room, using one common dorm phone since cell phones had not yet been invented!
More importantly, the study of the Western Classics that helped shape Christian civilization, studied within a vibrant Catholic community, brought Fr. Bernard to embrace the Catholic Faith his freshman year and led him to discover his monastic vocation before graduating.

As a speaker, Fr. Bernard is dynamic, clear, insightful, business-savvy and engaging. He has developed a reputation for holding secular, non-Catholic business leaders in rapt attention at conferences nationwide. His incredibly diverse background brings wit and wisdom to any conference: a certified investment counselor at age 15, a pilot and member of the National Association of Priest Pilots, an international scuba diver and sailor, a concert musician, a former actor, and a classical and modern linguist, author, and specialist in spiritual formation.

As a dedicated monk, priest, CEO, and leader who is exemplary in his integration of business, ethics and Faith, Fr. Bernard is uniquely qualified to understand what it means to integrate the Catholic Faith with one’s work!