“Eight years ago, my sister, who’s a high-tech executive, phoned me from Palo Alto and wanted to know how I could do anything else but work for a winery or get in the car every morning and drive to San Francisco,” remembers Petaluma resident Dick Herman. “She, and a million other influential Silicon Valley people, had absolutely no idea we had almost 300 manufacturers up here doing important things. I looked around and realized somebody had to do something about that.”
In response, Herman founded 101MFG, a private alliance of manufacturing executives throughout Northern California (he now serves as its president) dedicated to enhancing the competitive posture and economic success of its members, which include strategic suppliers to aerospace, defense, medical, biopharmaceutical, communications, industrial, energy, electro-optical, transportation, green building and leading consumer products companies throughout the world.
What did you do professionally before founding 101MFG?
After earning an MBA from Georgia State University, I went to work for a former IBM division that sold “time-sharing”—today, we call it “the cloud.” I worked with major U.S. corporations and the U.S. government, who did all of their budgeting and real-time computing on terminals networked to an underground, bomb-proof computer room full of IBM’s latest/greatest; we called it “the 360.” Seven years later, as the minicomputer and PC were putting the handwriting on the wall for that business, I went to work for four CMU professors, and we created a company that did some of the world’s most successful artificial intelligence applications. I raised $25 million (in 1983 to 87, that was no small change) from Ford Motor, Boeing, Texas Instruments and several others. Even today, Ford cars and the military’s antimissile defense shield have some of our technology in them.
Share an embarrassing life moment.
Too many to count, but here’s one with a lesson: Back when I was a freshly minted MBA in a two-week training course at a very exclusive IBM facility in Tareytown, N.Y., about 30 of us decided it would be a good idea to go skinny dipping at midnight in the pool of the exclusive “King House” up on the hill—you know, to blow off steam. In those days, there were no cell phone cameras, thank God.
Describe your dream home.
A solar adobe, minimalist furnishings, near the coast with a view of the Pacific, not quite off-the-grid, because I must have that nice high-speed Internet, but I’d be doing my part to reduce Al Gore’s carbon footprint.
What do you love to do outside of work?
I love sailing, and I frequently go “outside the Gate” and around the bend to Santa Cruz on a friend’s 44-foot race boat. Two weeks after the tragic loss of the sailors at the Farallons in April last year, I skippered the boat to drop wreaths of roses in remembrance.
I also play tennis—I was a “walk on” varsity player in college—and 3D modeling and animation. I’m actually pretty good at it, with a tool Hollywood and game designers use called Maya (my son, Nick, is a successful director/cinematographer for a top video game company).
If you could have a conversation with one person from history, who would it be?
There are so many: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln. I’d ask them, “How did you do it? How did you change public perception? How did you mobilize so many people to do something so great?”
What animals scare you the most?
Not an animal per se , but viruses, bacterium…or I guess now we have to think about man-made organisms as well. Because these things mutate, sometimes with disastrous consequences—becoming airborne pathogens for instance. Thanks, Michael Crichton!
What fuels you?
I’m naturally curious. I want to understand how it works, what’s the science, implication or practical use of some technology. But, it isn’t always high tech. Some of the most fascinating things to me are the basic physics behind simple machines like levers, pulleys, gears and hydraulics, and how really creative geniuses have adapted them to do amazing things.
If your spouse could change one thing about you, what would it be?
Trudee and I would have married each other 10 years sooner (we’ll be celebrating 20 years in 2014), and I’d be a better listener and not filter out so much.
What’s your favorite piece of art?
My daughter, Natalie, did a little angel with her hands and some finger-paint. It hangs above my office where it’s been for 12 years.
What’s your secret vice?
It’s cigars and tobacco. I love how it smells. I rarely light up, though, and when I do, it’s on a boat—any sailboat—in the middle of the Bay.
Who was your favorite musical group in high school? Name a favorite song.
The Who’s “Tommy.” Nothing else comes close. There’s no one song. It’s an opera , you have to listen to it whole.
