Posted on 11/23/2005 11:18:56 AM PST by nickcarraway
T.J. Rodgers, chief executive of the Cypress Semiconductor company, has a reputation as a Silicon Valley iconoclast -- a techie who doesn't play Nerf ball in the aisles and who speaks out to Congress against subsidies and lobbying groups created supposedly to bolster the industry in the global market. His methodical approach to life was formed in part by his Wisconsin upbringing, along with the "play-to-win" gospel of Vince Lombardi.
Like many chief executives, Rodgers is also supremely confident, whether it's work or whim, including his latest multimillion dollar hobby -- a bid to make America's best Pinot Noir. His Clos de la Tech wines from Woodside -- 2000, '01 and '02 -- will be released to the public for the first time at a tasting on Thursday at Lavanda restaurant in Palo Alto.
6:30 a.m. Buck's restaurant in Woodside, where venture capitalists make deals over lattes. A voice beckons from the darkness -- Valeta Massey, 40, Rodger's partner of 19 years and a former Cypress chip designer. Rodgers is running the 4.2 miles from their house and will be there any minute, she says. He arrives in shorts and windbreaker, sweating profusely from his pace, a 7 1/2-minute mile. Massey hands him a towel. "I used to be faster, but I'm 56 now," he says. Rodgers usually runs at lunch but is too busy for that today because it's "hell month," he says over eggs, bacon and potatoes. He's on six boards and in four divisions in the company, and they're all making quarterly reports to him -- 20 meetings, each four hours long, added to his regular schedule.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
My favorite was when some hippie nun tried browbeating him in a shareholder's meeting and he let her have it with both barrels and called her out on her commie rubbish.
I remember Rodgers from a Reason magazine article back in the late 1980s or early 90s. He was a refreshing change from the leftist bilge that fills too many boardrooms in Silicon Valley and criticizes the system that allowed them to accumulate their millions.
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