Craig R. Cooning
Vice president, general manager
Space and Intelligence Systems
Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Born in Orlando, Fla., age 59
Lives in Rancho Palos Verdes
Nanette M. Bouchard
Vice president, program management
Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Born in Cincinnati, age 51
Lives in Glendale
Charles E. Toups
Vice president, general manager
Network and Tactical Systems
Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Born in Fullerton, age 51
Lives in Palos Verdes Estates
Top regional executives for Chicago-based aerospace, defense contractor with about 8,500 OC employees, 25,000 in Southern California.
Operations in Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Long Beach, El Segundo are home to several key Boeing programs, including C-17 military airlifter, satellites, advanced warfare networks, communications systems. Shifts in U.S. defense priorities present challenges, opportunities.
Cooning is vice president, general manager of Space and Intelligence Systems based in Seal Beach. Responsible for military, civil, commercial satellites, including El Segundo factory, Spectrolab unit in Sylmar.
Retired Air Force major general. Prior to joining Boeing in 2005, served as director of space acquisition in office of undersecretary of Air Force; program executive officer for Air Force space programs; and in range of other Air Force logistics, acquisitions positions.
Bachelor’s in aviation management, Ala-bama’s Auburn University. MBA, Univer-sity of Alabama.
Fitness buff. Married, two sons.
Bouchard named to current post in realignment announced in January. Previously headed former C3 Networks unit in Huntington Beach. New responsibilities include developing, promoting use of program management best practices, providing training for program leaders, performing independent assessments, participating in proposal reviews. Began career at Rockwell Internation-al’s Rocketdyne in Canoga Park in 1981.
Bachelor’s in chemical engineering, Rice University in Texas. Member of Society of Women Engin-eers. Married, teen son. Husband teaches at Occidental College.
Toups heads Huntington Beach unit created earlier this year from combination of two units, C3 Networks, Combat Systems. Oversees nearly 3,800 employees in 30 states, abroad. Business focused on designing, delivering network, tactical gear for global defense, commercial, civil customers.
Previously served as vice president of engineering, mission assurance. Joined Boeing in 1982, spent part of career at El Segundo satellite factory.
Has engineering bachelor’s, UC Irvine. Master’s of science, MIT. Completed Sloan Fellowship at Stanford business school, earned management master’s in 1997.
Married, three sons. Enjoys sailing, golf.
—Murray Coleman
John F. Coyne
Chief executive, president
Western Digital Corp.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, age 59
Lives in Laguna Beach
Steady hand during uncertain times.
Adeptly steered big maker of disk drives for computers, consumer electronics through downturn. Won plaudits from Wall Street. Business Journal’s 2009 businessperson of the year.
Starting in late 2008, cut jobs, pared executive pay, slowed production, slashed costs
amid waning demand. By mid-2009, moves helped set stage for stable prices, lean stockpiles in business known for booms and busts.
Overseeing big shift—more growth coming from newer sources: drives for portable PCs, consumer electronics, external storage devices for businesses, consumers.
More than half of $8 billion in yearly sales from drives for portables, servers, consumer electronics, branded drives sold at stores. Rest from commodity PCs.
Expanding into solid state drives, which, unlike disk drives, use flash memory to store data. Released first solid state drive earlier this year. Acquired solid state drive maker SiliconSystems of Aliso Viejo in 2009 for $65 million.
Chief executive since 2007. Runs county’s second-largest public company by revenue. Moving headquarters from Lake Forest to Irvine. Struck lease last year for space near John Wayne Airport. Gradual move during next few years.
In 2007, led $1 billion buy of San Jose-based drive parts maker Komag, Western Digital’s biggest to date.
Company now makes almost an entire drive on its own. Worked on integration of 2003 buy of parts maker Read-Rite.
Worldly Irishman. Joined in 1983 to start company’s circuit board operations in Ireland. Went on to oversee manufacturing in Irvine, board production worldwide.
Left to join circuit board maker SCI Systems, tapped to run European operations of onetime Anaheim circuit board maker Data-Design Laboratories in early 1990s. Oversaw Data-Design plant in Northern Ireland.
Rejoined Western Digital in 1996, overseeing Malaysia operations. Consolidated drive production there, closed 2,000-person Singapore plant in bid to save profits amid falling prices. In early 2000s, led expansion into Thailand, where most production now done. Some parts still made in Northern California.
Named president, COO in 2006. Senior VP, worldwide operations, 2000 to 2005.
Director, Pasadena’s Jacobs Engineering Group. Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, University College, Dublin.
—Sarah Tolkoff
H.K. Desai
Chairman, chief executive
QLogic Corp.
Born in Abrama, Gujarat, India, age 64
Lives in Laguna Beach
QLogic’s dominant boss since 1994 spinoff from former parent turned rival Emulex of Costa Mesa.
Runs maker of data storage networking chips, circuit boards, switches. Enjoys lead for six straight years over Emulex in rivalry for host bus adapters, profitable bit of electronics for data storage networks. Two dominate market with roughly 80% combined share.
Fiercely competing with Emulex on new fibre channel over Ethernet technology, promises to combine different networks within corporate data centers, save costs.
Both companies touting lead, scrapping for early market share gains.
Slapped Emulex with lawsuit in February alleging false advertising, unfair competition, libel over ads for new adapter cards.
Desai said to be seeking successor. Tried to step back three years ago when he hired former IBM exec Jeff Benck. Benck stepped down in 2008 after Desai, board couldn’t come to terms on succession timing. Benck now operations chief at Emulex.
Beefed up sales team: Last year, hired Hitachi veteran Scott Genereux as head of worldwide sales, Jim Rothstein as VP of North America sales, Martin Darling, head of sales in Asia. Earlier this year, tapped Minoru Yosuda as general manager, Japan.
Desai still engineer at heart. Engineering manager at Unisys in Mission Viejo for 10 years before joining QLogic in 1990 as engineering director. Left QLogic in 1995 to become Western Digital VP. Lured back as interim chief after abrupt exit of then boss Mel Gable. Board said to have come around to Desai’s way of thinking. Post made permanent in 1996.
Earlier stints at NCR, Sperry Univac, Addressograph-Multigraph.
Master’s in electrical engineering, UC Berkeley.
Style is decidedly techie, egalitarian, no frills, extremely competitive. Company meetings likened to big, lively family gathering.
Member, UCI Chief Executive Roundtable. Charter member, Southern California chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs.
Registered Democrat, calls himself fiscally conservative, socially liberal.
Likes golf. Wife, Anjana, former medical technologist at Mission Hospital. Two grown children.
—Sarah Tolkoff
Paul F. Folino
Executive chairman
Emulex Corp.
Born in Seattle, age 64
Lives in Coto de Caza
James M. McCluney
Chief executive, president
Emulex Corp.
Born in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, age 58
Lives in Laguna Niguel
Working to prove Emulex better off on own.
Duo leads maker of networking electronics, spearheaded rejection of last year’s $912 million buyout offer from chipmaker Broadcom (run by OC 50ers Henry Samueli, Scott McGregor).
Takeover battle dominated company’s attention for months, pitted high-profile tech execs against each other. Fight lives on in litigation: Broadcom sued late last year for alleged patent violations.
McCluney now in fourth year at helm after taking over from longtime CEO turned Executive Chairman Folino.
Setting sights on convergence—helping customers consolidate data storage, networking on one wire to save power, costs in data centers.
Pushing converged network adapter cards for next generation servers. Competing for design wins with rival QLogic in Aliso Viejo. Recently sued by QLogic over ads (see OC 50er H.K. Desai).
Other offerings include routers, switches, controllers, blade server devices, mainstay host bus adapters.
Has bolstered management with new positions in operations, marketing, sales. Snagged IBM veteran Jeff Benck as COO after dustup at QLogic two years ago.
McCluney’s former company, Vixel—which he took public in 1999—bought by Emulex in 2003. Held posts at Silicon Valley startup Ridge Technologies, Apple, Digital Equipment.
Soft-spoken Scotsman known for humor, humility. Brought own management style to Emulex. Runs as “balanced democracy.”
Named 2008 CEO of the Year by trade group Technology Council of Southern California. 2008 Outstanding Public Company CEO award from trade group Tech America. Won national human relations award from Orange County chapter of American Jewish Committee in 2008. Engineering accolades from UC Irvine.
Donates to Project Tomorrow. On board of Mind Research Institute, dean’s advisory board at UCI’s Samueli School of Engineering. In 2008, sponsored chair in electrical engineering, computer science at UCI.
Bachelor’s in business from Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde.
Wife, Vivian. Two grown children, one grandchild. Likes walking, cycling, gardening, reading, live music, theater.
Folino one of county’s most engaged executives in arts, education, politics.
Chief executive, 1993 to 2006. Grew company into dominant supplier of electronics for data storage networks.
Key member, past chairman of moderate Republican group New Majority.
Close friend, adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Helped raise more than $20 million for governor, mostly from New Majority members.
Heavily involved in Performing Arts Center as former board member, chair. Led South Coast Repertory growth, theater named for him. Vice chairman of Chapman University’s board, headed fundraising for Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Also supports UCI, Cal State Fullerton, where street’s named for him.
Set to receive honorary CSUF doctor of humane letters at May commencement, where he’s keynote speaker.
Chairman, OC High School of the Arts Foundation advisory board. Director, Microsemi (see OC 50er Jim Peterson). Director, investor Commercial Bank of California.
Born into modest Seattle home. Lived in public housing. Neither parent finished high school. Put himself through graduate school while working at Boeing. Graduated cum laude with bachelor’s from Central Washington State University. Business master’s, Seattle University.
Huge sports fan. Likes golf, attends Lakers, Clippers, Ducks, Angels games. Seattle Seahawks fan. Wife, Daranne, grown daughter, Courtney.
—Sarah Tolkoff
Michael S. Morhaime
Cofounder, chief executive
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Born in Panorama City, age 42
Lives in Newport Coast
Turned love of “Dungeons and Dragons,” “Lord of the Rings,” other staples of geek culture into county’s biggest software maker.
Started, grew online game maker Blizzard into global game powerhouse with estimated $1.3 billion in yearly sales.
Pioneered multiplayer Internet games. Spawned many imitators.
Was key part of 2008 deal to combine with Santa Monica’s Activision in $19 billion deal, creating Activision Blizzard. Industry’s largest game publisher with yearly revenue of more than $4 billion. Ultimate parent is Paris-based Vivendi.
Blizzard’s known for blockbuster “World of Warcraft,” fantasy role playing game. Industry’s most popular online game.
Marked big milestone in November: “World of Warcraft” turned five; original predecessor, “Warcraft,” turned 15.
Movie based on “World of Warcraft” with budget of more than $100 million due next year. “Arthas: Rise of the Lich King,”
book about game character, is New York Times bestseller.
Company hosts BlizzCon, big yearly event for fans, workers in Anaheim. Drew 20,000 last year.
Started Blizzard with college buddies Allen Adham, Frank Pearce in 1991. Borrowed $15,000 from his grandma—still has handwritten contract on office wall.
Bought by New Jersey’s Cendant in 1996. In 1998, sold to France’s Havas, later bought by Vivendi.
Valley Boy. Electrical engineering bachelor’s, UCLA. Moved to OC in 1990. First job at Western Digital testing software.
Animated in “South Park” episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft.”
Likes playing tennis, racquetball, Activision game “Guitar Hero.”
Donates to Jewish Federation of OC’s Young Leadership Division, Daniel Pearl Foundation.
Poker enthusiast. Played in World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in past years but hasn’t placed in money. Says he’s “not ready to give up trying.”
Placed second in 2006 celebrity poker tournament hosted by Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Inducted into its hall of fame in 2008.
Plays bass in band with other Blizzard workers, band name “The Artists Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain.”
—Sarah Tolkoff
James J. Peterson
Chief executive, president
Microsemi Corp.
Born in Port Jefferson, N.Y., age 54
Lives in Laguna Beach (Blue Bird Canyon), San Juan Capistrano
Head of county’s third-largest chipmaker makes OC 50 debut.
Has run maker of chips for military, aerospace, industrial, consumer uses for more than a decade. Recently landed deals to supply chips to makers of airport security body scanners, among other defense jobs.
Grew company during downturn via acquisitions. Big on doing small deals—adds few each year as part of roll-up strategy in what are known as high-reliability chips used in devices where failure is costly.
Last year, bought La Mirada’s Babcock for $20 million, Irvine startup Nexsem Inc. for undisclosed terms.
This month, picked up Phoenix-based White Electronic Design, maker of chips for GPS-guided weapons, for $100 million.
Hit snag with 2007’s buy of Costa Mesa’s Semicoa Semiconductors—government forced sale last year to private equity firm after antitrust probe.
Faced another issue last year: embarrassing education flap.
Short-selling investor Barry Minkow found out Peterson didn’t hold Brigham Young degrees as claimed on his official biography. Peterson initially denied charge.
Microsemi’s board handed down penalties but opted to back Peterson based on his track record at company.
He stepped down as director of Santa Ana’s STEC amid controversy.
In 1990s, ran Garden Grove’s LinFinity Microelectonics, unit of San Jose-based SymmetriCom, which Microsemi bought in 1999 for $24 million.
Peterson ran LinFinity as a Microsemi division before being promoted to top spot in 2000.
On boards for Mind Research Institute, UCI Chief Executive Roundtable, UCI Board of Trustees, Paul Merage Business School, Association for Better Living.
Gives along with family to German Shepherd Rescue of OC, Mind Research, CASA of OC, Discovery Science Center, Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, Soka University, Great Park Conservancy.
Enjoys fishing, gardening, being grandparent. Refers to himself as “Jimmy P.” Friendly, jokes with analysts on calls.
Wife, Sheila. Six grown children. Three grandchildren, one on way.
—Sarah Tolkoff
Henry Samueli
Cofounder, chief technical officer
Broadcom Corp.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y, age 55
Lives in Corona del Mar
Scott A. McGregor
Chief executive, president
Broadcom Corp.
Born in St. Louis, age 54
Lives in San Juan Capistrano
McGregor presiding over new era at county’s dominant chipmaker. Samueli back in formal engineering role after long stock options ordeal.
In sixth year as chief executive, McGregor only third leader in company’s 19-year history. Has brought in hand-picked execs, standardized accounting, settled options lawsuits, took aggressive legal stance to protect patents from competitors. Options issue predates him.
Scouting small acquisitions, strategic investments. Paid $123 million for Petaluma’s Teknovus in February, $178 million for Silicon Valley’s Dune Networks in December. Took part in $25 million funding of San Jose chipmaker Tilera in March.
Made big gains in consumer electronics. Apple iPhone, iPad, Nintendo’s Wii, Samsung’s touch screen phones have Broadcom chips.
Company also makes chips for servers, networking gear, cell phones. Heading push to be big supplier of “combo chips” for cell phone makers.
Formerly headed Philips Semiconductors, now NXP Semiconductors. Stints with Santa Cruz Operation, Microsoft, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. Also worked at Digital Equipment.
Thoughtful, analytical. Likes spending time outdoors, with wife, three kids. Referees youth soccer games. Strict on offside rule.
Samueli largely exonerated in options issue late last year after federal judge threw out his plea bargain with prosecutors, dismissed all charges. Prosecutors had charged him with lying to investigators.
Stepped down as executive to become adviser in 2008 amid options case. Resumed formal title in December.
Cases also thrown out against cofounder, former CEO Henry “Nick” Nicholas, former CFO Bill Ruehle amid court finding of prosecutor misconduct, questionable evidence.
Appeals of Nicholas, Samueli cases under consideration by Justice Department. Decision rests with solicitor general, expected soon.
In 2007, Broadcom took charges of $2.2 billion to past earnings to fix misdated options, most of any company. In 2008, Broadcom settled SEC civil charges by paying $12 million fine.
Samueli former UCLA professor. Worked at PairGain, TRW in 1980s.
Started Broadcom in 1991 with then-student Nicholas. Each threw in $5,000. Recruited best engineering students to work at company while at UCLA.
Bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate in electrical engineering from UCLA. Revered as engineering genius.
Had big hand in moving Broadcom HQ to campus in University Research Park alongside UCI, recruits engineers from school.
In 2005, he, wife, Susan, bought Anaheim Ducks hockey team from Walt Disney for about $70 million. Team was 2007 Stanley Cup winner, regrouping after tough 2009-10 season.
Born in hockey-crazy Buffalo. Says hockey helps manage stress. Cheered on USA hockey team in Winter Olympics in Vancouver (though most Ducks are Canadian).
Also owns company that runs Honda Center, home to Ducks.
Philanthropic. Gave $30 million to UCLA. Almost same amount to UCI. Both universities named engineering schools after him.
Performing Arts Center, OC High School of the Arts, KOCE, Discovery Science Center, Tarbut V’Torah Jewish day school, Ocean Institute, Jewish Federation of OC, Shoah Foundation, University Synagogue also beneficiaries.
Parents, Aaron, Sala, were Holocaust survivors from Poland. Met after war. Came to America in 1950s, moved to California. Family ran liquor store on Whittier Boulevard, where Samueli worked as teen.
Understated, modest. Likes hiking, basketball, skiing. Three children.
—Sarah Tolkoff
Gregory M.E. Spierkel
Chief executive
Ingram Micro Inc.
Born in Montreal, age 53
Lives in Laguna Hills
Runs county’s largest company by yearly sales, tech industry bellwether.
Ingram Micro biggest distributor of technology, consumer electronics products, software. So goes Ingram, so goes industry.
After two years of retrenching, company poised for growth this year on better outlook for tech spending by companies, consumers.
Yearly sales of $30 billion. Company delivers products from Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, Sony, others to tech service companies, retailers. Serves army of “value added resellers.”
Spierkel company veteran, at helm since 2005.
Recently wrapped up nearly two years of cost cutting. Latest effort in Europe with sale of Scandinavian businesses.
Moving beyond Ingram’s traditional “pick, pack and ship” model in bid to boost profits. Pushing services, staffing, marketing, logistics, cloud computing, tech support, management of warranties.
Marked company’s 30th anniversary last year with celebrations around globe. City of Santa Ana proclaimed July 16 Ingram Micro Day.
History of acquisitions, slowed of late. In November, bought assets of Britain’s Computacenter Distribution, a unit of Computacenter.
Played key part in Ingram’s $530 million buy in 2004 of Australia’s Tech Pacific, largest in company history. Was behind 2005’s $120 million buy of home electronics company Avad. Also key in 1997’s buy of Singapore’s Electronic Resources.
Led big push into Asia after joining as senior vice president, Asia-Pacific in 1997. Was president of Ingram Micro Europe for five years before coming to California. Landed CEO title after short stint as worldwide president in 2005.
Big on frugality in low-profit business. Turns off heat, air on weekends. Workers urged to keep online records, print on both sides of paper.
Big on green, too. Campaigned for New Zealand office to be completely “green.”
Reserved, unpretentious, quick with smile. Spent 11 years at Canada’s Mitel, maker of phone systems, software, electronics. Got start at Bell Canada, working on one of first e-mail systems in 1979.
Holds business master’s from Georgetown University, bachelor’s from Carleton University, Ottawa. Attended Advanced Manufacturing Program at Insead business school in France.
Director, Bellevue, Wash.-based truck maker Paccar. On business school advisory boards of UCI, Chapman.
Fosters volunteerism, giving among workers. Many give blood, raise money for charities, other activities.
Workers raised $50,000 for Haiti relief, company doubled with match.
Parents came from Luxembourg to Canada. Colorful family: Uncle founded Cirque du Soleil. Father a jack-of-all-trades, owned newspaper, TV station, worked at airline, dabbled in construction. Mother was linguist who spoke six languages.
Played hockey, curling until age 17. Says he wasn’t NHL material. Worked in iron ore mines, doing number of duties including driving giant mining trucks. Lived abroad most of professional life, including in Hong Kong, Singapore, England, Belgium. Loves winter sports.
Two teen boys, wife, Rhiannon, “a good Welsh name.”
—Sarah Tolkoff
John Tu
President
Kingston Technology Co.
Born in Shanghai, China, age 68
Lives in Rolling Hills
David Sun
Chief operating officer
Vice president
Kingston Technology Co.
Born in Taichung, Taiwan, age 58
Lives in Irvine
Yin, yang at top maker of computer memory products.
Consolidated lead during downturn with market share gains. Eyeing better 2010 after two years of falling prices for memory chips, tepid demand.
Company had 2009 sales of $4 billion, roughly flat from 2008. Buys memory chips from Asian, European, U.S. suppliers, assembles on circuit boards or as flash cards, drives. Products go into computers, cameras, phones, game consoles. Has 38% of market for memory modules used in computers.
County’s second-largest private company (after OC 50er Jim Morris’ Pacific Life Insurance). Largest minority-owned company.
Making big push for solid state drives made of flash memory, seen displacing disk drives for corporate, consumer storage.
Kingston employs about 800 local workers, 4,000 worldwide. Plants in Fountain Valley, Taiwan, Shanghai. Shuttered Malaysia plant in 2009 on slower demand, moved operations to other sites.
Workers describe style of Sun, Tu as benevolent patriarchy. Humble, private. Open culture, not big on titles. Not micromanagers, don’t obsess on worker performance, productivity stats. Like to step back, let people do their jobs. No reserved parking, corner offices, glitzy conference rooms.
Opposite personas. Sun lively, unconventional operations man. Tu funny, soft-spoken public face. No clear No. 2 to Sun-Tu team.
Famous for handing out $100 million in bonuses to workers after selling 80% of Kingston to Softbank in 1990s. Bought back in 1999 for fraction of what Softbank paid.
Sun, Tu started Camintonn in garage in early 1980s. Became division VPs when former computer maker AST Research bought Camintonn. Left to start Kingston in 1987 after losing millions in stock market crash.
Tu’s family fled China for Taiwan in 1949. Sent to Germany as a kid to live with uncle who owned Chinese restaurant.
Loves Elvis. Heads own band, JT and California Dreamin’ Band. Tu plays drums.
Generous. UC Irvine cancer diagnostic center named for him, friend Tom Yuen, AST cofounder, president of Irvine’s SRS Labs. (Tu an investor in Yuen’s stem cell startup PrimeGen Biotech.)
Was businessman benefactor portrayed in 2007 movie “Freedom Writers” about real-life teacher who motivates at-risk teens.
Earned electrical engineering degree from Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany. Came to U.S. in 1972. Collects cars. Married, two children.
Sun came from Taiwan in 1977, was chief engineer at Alpha Micro Systems in Costa Mesa, 1978 to 1982. Electrical engineering degree from Taiwan’s Tatung Institute of Technology.
Married, two grown children, both work at Kingston. Avid golfer.
—Sarah Tolkoff
William W. Wang
Founder, chief executive
Vizio Inc.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, age 47
Lives in Newport Beach
Runs country’s biggest seller of flat TVs by market share.
Company sold an estimated 6 million TVs in 2009, nearly double from 2008. Sales of $2.5 billion last year, up 25%.
Ranks among county’s top private companies by sales. Second-largest minority-owned company here after Kingston (run by OC 50ers John Tu, David Sun).
Expanded Vizio into different products last year: Blu-ray DVD players, speakers, cables. Also started selling in Canada, Mexico.
Year ago, opened support, sales office at old South Dakota stomping grounds of Irvine PC maker Gateway, now part of Taiwan’s Acer.
Started Vizio in 2002. Company designs, markets TVs here. Sets made in China, Taiwan, Mexico by Taiwan’s AmTran Technology, Vizio investor. Outsources shipping, too.
Used same model for prior companies, monitor sellers Mag InnoVision, Princeton Digital. Both ended poorly.
Started Mag InnoVision at age 26 with $350,000 from family, friends, Asian investor. Company struggled when PC prices dropped, after making tons of money in tech boom.
Taiwan’s Mag Technology, which made the monitors, bought business in 1998.
Princeton Digital faltered with custom video displays for slot machines, other uses that did not take off. Says his insistence on never giving up pulled him through early setbacks.
Relied on same perseverance in 2000, when he walked away from tragic Singapore Airlines crash where roughly half of passengers died. Wang among 96 survivors.
Egalitarian, doesn’t micromanage. Goal is to make affordable TVs available to all. Said to be “product visionary.” Helps shape the look, feel of products. Big on design, user-friendliness.
Vizio’s rapid ascent thorn in side of big consumer electronics names, including Sony, Philips, Samsung. Faced barrage of patent disputes.
Staffed up, brought in executives as company has grown. Vizio still prides itself on running lean, with around 115 workers.
Born in Taiwan. Moved to Hawaii at age 12, California at 14. Bachelor’s in electrical engineering from USC.
Into sports, golf, reading, movies, of course—TV.
Swanky office looks like upscale lounge. Doesn’t spend much time there—travels often to Asia.
Through Vizio, gives to Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Second Harvest Food Bank, Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Member of Committee of 100, group of distinguished Chinese-Americans. Business Journal’s entrepreneur of year in 2008.
Wife, Sakura, daughter, Celine.
—Sarah Tolkoff
