Craig R. Cooning
Vice president, general manager
Space and Intelligence Systems
Boeing Co.
Born in Orlando, Fla.
Age 60
Lives in Rancho Palos Verdes
Nanette M. Bouchard
Vice president, program management,
regional executive
Boeing Co.
Born in Cincinnati
Age 52
Lives in Glendale
Charles E. Toups
Vice president, general manager
Network and Tactical Systems
Boeing Co.
Born in Fullerton
Age 52
Lives in Palos Verdes Estates
Top command here for Chicago-based aerospace, defense contractor with 8,000 local employees, 23,000 in Southern California.
Trio oversees satellites, advanced warfare networks, programs of all types. Helping steer company through Pentagon shift away from big-ticket items in favor of technology.
Cooning 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. Held range of other Air Force space, logistics, acquisitions positions.
Bachelor’s in aviation management, Alabama’s Auburn University. MBA, University of Alabama.
Fitness buff. Married, two sons.
Bouchard named to current post in 2010 realignment. Responsibilities include developing, promoting use of program management best practices, providing training for program leaders, performing independent assessments, participating in proposal reviews. Southern California regional executive for defense business.
Began career at Rockwell International’s Rocketdyne in Canoga Park in 1981.
Bachelor’s in chemical engineering, Rice University in Texas. Member of Society of Women Engineers. Married, teen son. Husband teaches at Occidental College.
Toups heads Huntington Beach operation created in 2010 from combination of C3 Networks, Combat Systems. Oversees nearly 3,800 employees in 30 states, abroad. Business focused on designing, delivering network, tactical gear for global military, commercial customers.
Previously vice president of engineering, mission assurance. Joined Boeing in 1982, spent part of career at El Segundo satellite factory.
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.
—Chris Casacchia
John F. Coyne
Chief executive, president
Western Digital Corp.
Born in Dublin, Ireland
Age 60
Lives in Laguna Beach
Spearheaded massive consolidation play that’s set to make Western Digital dominant disk drive maker with more than half of market.
In March, agreed to pay $4.3 billion for San Jose’s Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, part of Japan’s Hitachi.
Deal, set to close in third quarter, biggest yet for 41-year-old Western Digital.
Hitachi gives leg up in drives for corporate computers, which offer better profits than desktop, consumer drives.
Western Digital now makes drives for desktops, portables, consumer electronics, media hubs, external storage devices.
County’s second largest company by revenue with yearly sales of $10 billion.
Moved to bigger, brighter headquarters near John Wayne Airport in late 2010. All local workers will be under one roof for first time in decade.
Last year, bought Japan’s Hoya, maker of glass substrates, for $235 million. Deal gave company ability to control more supplies, plus manufacturing in Singapore. Set to invest some $400 million to expand Singapore factory, build disk drive R&D center there.
Said to have made play for key rival Seagate Technologies last year when Scotts Valley-based company was in talks to go private. Seagate put off sale amid improving conditions for drive makers.
In 2009, Western Digital expanded into solid state drives, which, unlike disk drives, use flash memory to store data. Acquired solid state drive maker SiliconSystems of Aliso Viejo two years ago for $65 million.
Coyne chief executive since 2007. Worldly Irishman. Speaks with slightly faded, still discernable Irish accent. Low key, shies away from media attention.
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.
Senior VP, worldwide operations, 2000 to 2005. Named president, COO in 2006.
Director, Pasadena’s Jacobs Engineering Group.
Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, University College, Dublin. Was rally racing champion as young man in Ireland. Says sport taught him critical lessons for business.
—Sarah Tolkoff
H.K. Desai
Executive chairman
QLogic Corp.
Born in Abrama, Gujarat, India
Age 65
Lives in Laguna Beach
Simon Biddiscombe
Chief executive, president
QLogic Corp.
Born in Wales
Age 43
Lives in Coto de Caza
Biddiscombe ushering in new era at QLogic, makes OC 50 debut as top guy at maker of data storage networking chips, circuit boards, switches.
Third boss QLogic’s known since 1994 spinoff from rival Emulex of Costa Mesa.
Desai in executive chairman post, new role with focus on technology, product strategy, customers, acquisitions.
Biddiscombe, who also holds board seat, handles daily operations. Desai plans to stick around for transition.
Company has enjoyed lead for seven 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. QLogic claimed 54% share in 2010.
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, market share gains, customer wins.
Biddiscombe, Welshman, finance guy, not an engineer.
Was QLogic’s senior vice president, finance chief since early 2008. Recruited from similar post at Newport Beach chipmaker Mindspeed.
Before Mindspeed, Biddiscombe was at neighboring chipmaker Conexant in finance role. Mindspeed spun off from Conexant in 2003 in deal he worked on.
Other finance, operations posts at Irvine’s Wyle Electronics, electronics distributor that’s part of Pennsylvania’s PPL.
Started as accountant. Bachelor’s in business from Polytechnic of Wales.
Serves on advisory board for Center for Corporate Reporting & Governance at Cal State Fullerton’s business school.
Enjoys golf, watching his two young kids play sports. Wife Marylou.
Wall Street likes Biddiscombe, a regular on conference calls.
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.
Master’s in electrical engineering, UC Berkeley.
Member, UCI Chief Executive Roundtable. Charter member, Southern California chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs. On board of Silicon Valley’s Applied Micro Circuits.
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 66
Lives in San Juan Capistrano (Marbella)
James M. McCluney
Chief executive, president
Emulex Corp.
Born in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland
Age 59
Lives in Laguna Niguel
Plugging away on new converged networking technology, helping customers consolidate data storage, networking on one wire to save power, costs in data centers.
Quiet since 2009 rejection of $912 million hostile buyout offer from Irvine chipmaker Broadcom (run by OC 50ers Scott McGregor, Henry Samueli).
Takeover battle dominated company’s attention for months, pitted high-profile tech execs against each other.
McCluney now in fifth year at helm after taking over from Folino as CEO.
Pushing converged network adapter cards, networking chips on motherboards for next generation servers. Competing for design wins with rivals QLogic in Aliso Viejo, Broadcom.
Other offerings include switches, controllers, blade server devices, mainstay host bus adapters, for which it claims 40% market share.
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, known for humor, humility. Brought own management style to Emulex. Runs as “balanced democracy.” Writes blog on “disruptive” technologies for company website.
Recently joined foundation board for what’s now PBS SoCal, formerly KOCE-TV. Donates to Project Tomorrow. On boards of Mind Research Institute, Pacific Symphony, Octane, chairs UCI Chief Executive Roundtable, dean’s advisory board at UCI’s Samueli School of Engineering.
Along with Folino, won Samueli school’s “Engineering the Future” award in 2009.
Emulex sponsors chair in electrical engineering, computer science at UCI.
Born in Ireland, of Scottish descent. Grew up in Glasgow. First job: delivered groceries at age 11.
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.
Former board member, chair, Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Led South Coast Repertory growth, theater named for him. Member of Chapman University’s board, heading fundraising for Dodge College of Film and Media Arts’ Millenial Studios effort. Also supports UCI, Cal State Fullerton, where street’s named for him.
Keynote speaker at CSUF’s 2010 commencement, received honorary doctorate.
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.
Was “C” student. Went to college on basketball scholarship.
Graduated cum laude with bachelor’s from Central Washington State University.
Neither parent finished high school. Put himself through graduate school while working at Boeing. Business master’s, Seattle University.
Huge sports fan. Likes golf, attends Lakers, Clippers, Ducks, Angels games. Seattle Seahawks fan. Separated. Daughter, Courtney, married Dodgers reliever Blake Hawksworth in 2009. Grandchild on way.
—Sarah Tolkoff
James J. Peterson
Chief executive, president
Microsemi Corp.
Born in Port Jefferson, N.Y.
Age 55
Lives in Laguna Beach (Blue Bird Canyon), San Juan Capistrano
Looking to double Microsemi’s sales to $1 billion.
Has run maker of chips for military, aerospace, industrial, consumer uses for more than a decade. County’s third biggest chipmaker by sales with big name customers—Cisco, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Samsung.
Adept acquirer. Steering company through big aerospace buy of Northern California’s Actel, biggest Microsemi deal to date at $430 million.
Does many small, “tuck-in” deals—adds few each year as part of rollup strategy in what are known as high-reliability chips used in devices where failure is costly.
Bought Bethesda, Md.-based Arxan Defense Systems, Atlanta’s VT Silicon for undisclosed terms last year.
Hit snag with 2007 buy of Costa Mesa’s Semicoa Semiconductors—government forced sale in 2009 to private equity firm after antitrust probe.
Board backed him after 2008 education flap. Short-selling investor Barry Minkow—charged with securities fraud in another matter in April—found out Peterson didn’t hold Brigham Young degrees as claimed on his official biography.
Microsemi’s board handed down penalties, opted to keep Peterson based on track record.
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 Microsemi division before being promoted to top spot in 2000.
Early in career, held marketing posts at Rockwell in Newport Beach, General Instruments Microelectronics in New York.
Big on giving to education causes, children’s charities.
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 Institute, Casa of OC, Discovery Science Center, Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, Soka University, Great Park Conservancy.
Enjoys fishing, landscape gardening, driving fast cars, being grandparent. Learning to play drums. Took golf lessons in San Juan Capistrano to improve handicap. Refers to himself as “Jimmy P.” Friendly, sunny outlook. Jokes with analysts on calls.
Wife, Sheila. Six grown children. Four grandchildren.
—Sarah Tolkoff
Michael S. Morhaime
Cofounder, chief executive
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Born in Panorama City
Age 43
Lives in Newport Coast
Saw county’s biggest software maker through “best year yet” in 2010.
Riding high on two record-breaking game releases, growing subscribers to most popular title, “World of Warcraft.”
Online video game counts some 12 million subscribers, up from 11.5 million a year earlier. Big pop culture footprint. Many licensed products—Coke cans, trading cards, action figures, artwork, quarterly magazine, best-selling paperbacks, movie in works.
Cofounded, grew Blizzard into global game powerhouse with $1.6 billion in 2010 sales, up 33% from year earlier.
Pioneered multiplayer Internet games and battle.net, tech backbone for online gaming services. Spawned many imitators.
Marked big milestone in February with Blizzard’s 20th anniversary. Credits strong fan base, polished, “immersive” games for success.
Company now has 1,500 local workers, 4,600 worldwide.
Was key part of 2008 deal to combine with Santa Monica’s Activision in $10 billion deal, creating Activision Blizzard, largest game publisher with yearly revenue of $4.8 billion. Ultimate parent is Paris-based Vivendi.
Hiring hundreds for unnamed new multiplayer online game. Expected to have two major game releases in next two years, no dates announced.
Company hosts BlizzCon, big yearly event for fans, workers in Anaheim. Drew 25,000 last year. Builds buzz, rewards followers with big-name concert.
Started Blizzard with college buddies Allen Adham, Frank Pearce in 1991. Borrowed $15,000 from his grandma—still has handwritten loan contract on office wall.
Blizzard’s forerunner bought by Torrance educational software publisher Davidson & Associates in 1994, then by predecessor to 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 dubbed “Make Love, Not Warcraft.”
Likes playing tennis, racquetball, ping-pong, video games.
Donates to Jewish Federation of OC’s Young Leadership Division, Daniel Pearl Foundation.
Honored along with cofounders with 2010 Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award.
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
Henry Samueli
Cofounder, chief technical officer
Broadcom Corp.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y.
Age 56
Lives in Corona del Mar
Scott A. McGregor
Chief executive, president
Broadcom Corp.
Born in St. Louis
Age 55
Lives in San Juan Capistrano
McGregor putting big company polish on maturing chipmaker, one of county’s highest-profile companies. Samueli continues to steer engineering at Broadcom, which celebrates 20th year in 2011.
McGregor only third leader in company’s history. Has brought in hand-picked execs, standardized accounting, settled stock options litigation, took aggressive legal stance to protect patents from competitors.
Scouting acquisitions, strategic investments. In March, struck $313 million deal for Israel’s Provigent.
Made big gains in consumer electronics, landing chips in Apple iPhone, iPad, Nintendo’s Wii, TVs.
Company also makes chips for servers, TV set-top boxes, networking gear, cell phones.
Added to patent stable with six acquisitions in 2010, four in the fourth quarter alone.
McGregor 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.
Heading company’s corporate foundation efforts to support education in science, engineering, technology, math. Broadcom Foundation set to give some $2.5 million per year. Sponsors yearly Irvine schools science fair, nationwide Broadcom Masters science fair competition for middle schools.
Recently joined board of Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro, run by fellow OC 50er Greg Spierkel.
Samueli former UCLA professor. Worked at PairGain, TRW in 1980s. Started Broadcom in 1991 with cofounder Henry “Nick” Nicholas, who left in 2003. Each threw in $5,000. Recruited best engineering students to work at company while at UCLA.
Revered as engineering visionary. Had big hand in moving Broadcom HQ to campus in University Research Park alongside UCI, recruits engineers from school.
In 2007, Broadcom took charges of $2.2 billion to past earnings to fix misdated stock options, most of any company caught up in issue.
In late 2009, judge threw out Samueli plea deal on options over questionable evidence, judicial finding of prosecutor misconduct.
Cases against former CEO Nicholas, former CFO Bill Ruehle also thrown out.
Samueli, Nicholas paying, forfeiting options worth more than $50 million as part of options lawsuit settlement.
Bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate in electrical engineering from UCLA.
In 2005, Samueli, wife, Susan, bought Anaheim Ducks hockey team from Walt Disney for about $70 million. Team was 2007 Stanley Cup winner.
Born in hockey-crazy Buffalo. Says hockey helps manage stress.
Owns company that runs Honda Center, home to Ducks. Close to luring basketball’s Sacramento Kings to arena, decision due this month.
Philanthropic. Gave $30 million to UCLA, $20 million to UCI. Both universities named engineering schools after him.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts, OC High School of the Arts, PBS SoCal, 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 54
Lives in Laguna Hills
Whipped county’s biggest company by sales “into fighting shape,” now cashing in.
Tech bellwether Ingram Micro biggest distributor of computer, consumer electronics products, software.
After big restructuring during downturn, growing on boost in corporate tech spending.
2010 saw record earnings, highest sales growth in a decade.
Yearly sales of $35 billion, most of any company in OC. 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. Spends bulk of time on road with customers.
Moving beyond Ingram’s traditional “pick, pack and ship” model in bid to boost profits. Pushing services, staffing, marketing, logistics, cloud computing, tech support, managing licenses, warranties.
Credited for making Ingram more “global,” growing share in Asia.
Played key role in 2004’s $530 million buy of Australia’s Tech Pacific, largest in company history. Also key in 1997’s buy of Singapore’s Electronic Resources.
Still making deals in Asia, which made up 22% of sales last year.
Picked up Asiasoft Hong Kong, two New Zealand distributors last year.
Joined Ingram 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.
Counts profit margins in basis points, not percentages. Says frugality part of company’s “DNA.” Runs a fan in office instead of A/C. No corporate jet, few perks.
Worldly, reserved, unpretentious, quick with smile.
Lived abroad most of professional life, including in Hong Kong, Singapore, England.
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. Worked in iron ore mines, doing number of duties including driving giant mining trucks.
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.
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.
In 1979, spotted Bob Marley at Cannes Film Festival. Then 22, flagged him down for a cup of coffee. Meeting “turned out to be one of the most interesting moments of my life.”
Skiing is “love of my life.” Does double black diamond runs.
Two teen boys, “true global citizens.” Wife, Rhiannon, “a good Welsh name.”
—Sarah Tolkoff
Vincent C. Smith Jr.
Executive chairman
Quest Software Inc.
Born in Baltimore
Age 48
Lives in Newport Beach
Douglas F. Garn
Chief executive, president
Quest Software Inc.
Age 53
Lives in Corona del Mar
Garn makes OC 50 debut at the helm of Quest with Smith still in key role at business software maker.
In 2007, Smith handed off CEO title in orderly succession to Garn, who had been president. Smith held top post for more than a decade, company’s formative CEO.
Now guides product development, long-term strategy, acquisitions.
Garn handles day-to-day at county’s third-biggest software maker by sales.
Frequent acquirers. Buying binge back amid pickup in tech spending, new corporate technologies.
Focusing on building up products to tackle cloud computing, data security push.
Expanding operations in Ireland, opened “shared services center” set to have 150 workers by 2013.
Smith started at Oracle after graduating from University of Delaware in 1986. Degree in computer science, minor in economics. Played rugby. Landed Oracle job thanks to contact in economics department. Worked at Oracle from 1987 to 1992 in sales management.
In 1992 started San Francisco-based Patrol Software with Oracle colleague.
Sold it to BMC Software in 1994. Served as BMC’s director of open systems, managing sales operations.
Garn warming up to being public face of Quest. Recently appeared in YouTube video in response to a critic’s blast of Quest’s “outdated” logo. Showed logo-emblazoned surfboard in office.
Joined in 1998 as VP of global sales, promoted to president in 2005.
Previously VP of North America sales at Peregrine Systems, similar post at Syntax.
Got to know Smith at BMC, where he was regional sales manager in early 1990s. Bachelor’s in marketing from USC.
Garn’s brothers have ties to Quest. Jim Garn, senior director of sales. Chris Garn, account manager.
Smith unassuming, often-smiling leader. Known to wear jeans, cap in office. Goes by “Vinny.” Said to be aggressive, a salesman. Invested in Quest in 1995. Left life on Colorado ski slopes to take over as chief executive from Quest cofounder David Doyle.
Still plays investor. Owns a few restaurants, real estate ventures. Says he likes to invest in different things. Active stock trader.
Often on ski slopes, likes to surf. Divorced. Devoted dad to his two kids.
—Sarah Tolkoff
John Tu
Chief executive
Kingston Technology Co.
Born in Chongqing, China
Age 69
Lives in Rolling Hills
David Sun
Chief operating officer,
Vice president
Kingston Technology Co.
Born in Taichung, Taiwan
Age 60
Lives in Irvine
County’s memory kings flying high with record sales, market share.
Buoyant memory chip prices boosted company to $6.5 billion in 2010 sales, up nearly 60% from year ago.
Benefiting from returning demand for memory boards for PCs, flash memory for consumer electronics.
Grabbed share during downturn. Now holds 40% of market for memory modules that go into PCs.
Run county’s largest private company, topping Pacific Life Insurance with 2010 sales surge. Largest minority-owned company here.
Making big push for solid state drives made of flash memory, seen displacing disk drives for corporate, consumer storage. Sells them as aftermarket drives to make aging PCs run faster.
Latest effort is USB 3.0 drives, which offers faster transfer between portable flash drives, computers.
Buys memory chips from Asian suppliers, assembles on circuit boards or as flash cards that go into computers, cameras, phones.
Often invests in Asian suppliers. Paid some $300 million for stakes in Taiwan’s JMicron Technology, Powerchip Semiconductor, Phison Electronics, Japan’s Elpida.
March Japan earthquake fallout poses issues for company, industry.
Kingston employs about 800 local workers, 4,000 worldwide. Plants in Fountain Valley, Taiwan, China.
Sun, Tu run benevolent patriarchy. 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 to workers after selling 80% of Kingston to Softbank in 1990s. Duo bought back Kingston 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 kid to live with uncle who owned Chinese restaurant. Has said he “doesn’t like to study.” Expelled from several high schools.
Loves Elvis. Heads 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.)
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 with jobs at Kingston. Avid golfer.
—Sarah Tolkoff
William W. Wang
Founder, chief executive
Vizio Inc.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan
Age 48
Lives in Newport Beach
Flat TV titan grabbing share in maturing market, overseeing expansion into other consumer gadgets.
Runs country’s biggest seller of flat TVs, with 18% market share last year, up from 17% in 2009.
Company sold nearly 7 million TVs in 2010, up from 6 million sold in 2009.
Ranks among county’s top private companies by sales at $2.9 billion in 2010. Second-largest minority-owned company here after Kingston (run by OC 50ers John Tu, David Sun).
Expanded Vizio into hot new areas this year: Internet-connected TVs, Android-based tablet PC, mobile phones. Prototypes made splash at yearly tech trade show CES.
Now a big seller of devices, accessories—Blu-ray players, speakers, cables, subwoofers, wireless routers.
Wang started Vizio in 2002. Company designs, markets TVs here. Sets made in China, Taiwan, Mexico by Taiwan’s AmTran Technology, a Vizio investor.
In 1990s, 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 insistence on never giving up pulled him through early setbacks.
Relied on same perseverance in 2000 when he walked away from Singapore Airlines crash where roughly half of passengers died. Wang among 96 survivors.
Egalitarian, doesn’t micromanage. Goal is to make TVs affordable to all. Said to be “product visionary.” Helps shape the look, feel of products. Big on design, innovation, user-friendliness.
Vizio’s rapid ascent thorn in side of big consumer electronics names, including Sony, Samsung.
Big marketing push with sponsorship of Rose Bowl, celebrity spokespeople, including Beyonce.
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.
Wife, Sakura, daughter, Celine.
—Sarah Tolkoff
OTHER MEMBERS
Kenton K. Alder
Chief executive, president, Santa Ana-based circuit board maker TTM Technologies Inc.
Pascal Houillon
Chief executive, Irvine-based business software maker Sage Software Inc.
L. George Klaus
Chairman, chief executive, president, Irvine-based business software maker Epicor Software Corp., selling for $976 million to private equity firm Apax Partners LLC
Manouch Moshayedi
Chairman, chief executive, Santa Ana-based solid state drive maker STEC Inc.
Mark Moshayedi
President, chief operating officer, chief technical officer STEC
Mark Simons
Chief executive, Irvine-based computer, consumer electronics company Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.
