TP: I see that Lucky is feeling better. Is he healing now?

Steve: He’s finally healed – no more trips to the hospital. He earned his name when he had an encounter this summer with something big – I suspect it was a mountain lion. He’s back to coming to work with me every day now, but I’m still keeping him in the house at night. He’s just too protective for his own good. Lucky is the second Australian shepherd I’ve had, and he’s a great dog.

TP: I guess that’s one of the hazards of living in the country.

Steve: I live on a few hilly acres outside of Grass Valley. It’s pretty rural. I’ve discovered that I like to play farmer; I’ve put in an organic garden with high fences to keep the deer out, and I ride a tractor to cut the grass on the rest of the property to keep the fire danger down. I spent the first part of my life on a farm in Indiana, and it’s fun to revisit that time.

TP: What else do you do for fun?

Steve: I’m a big baseball fan. Whenever I can, I go to San Francisco to see the Giants play. But I like my fantasy baseball league even more – I’m unbeatable! My son got me hooked on it while he was in the Navy. I also like to watch my granddaughter play softball and my grandson play tennis – and I take great pleasure in whipping his butt at ping-pong.

I love politics and history, so I watch C-SPAN and the History channels virtually every day. I’m a political junkie. Last year at NAB I snuck away from our booth to attend the panel discussion with Chris Matthews – he’s one of my favorites. And on the way to InfoComm, I listened to biographies of George Washington and Jack Kennedy. That was a great road trip!

TP: You were also one of the founders of The ISIS Group, Inc. Why did you decide to participate?

Steve: It gave me the opportunity to run my own business in an industry that I knew and enjoyed. Len and I had worked together for many years, and I like working with him.

You know, I’ve worked in several different industries, and I find this one the best by far. The people are reputable, hard-working, and just generally decent human beings. I go to NAB each year and see people I genuinely enjoy being with. I like working closely with our customers, especially the technical guys, and with the sales people in our industry.

We’ve been doing this for ten years now. It’s taken an awful lot of very hard work, and we’re seeing success now. That’s extremely rewarding, and for the most part I’ve been having fun for the past ten years. I couldn’t say that about any other job I’ve held.

TP: What do you like best about your work at ISIS, and what would you say is the most important thing to you?

Steve: I enjoy the variety – the many kinds of work I do, the people I interact with, from customers to sales partners to employees. I think that CEO stands for Chief Everything Officer. We’re a small company, and I’ve been here since we started ten years ago, so I’ve learned how to do almost everything. When we’re busy, I backfill in shipping, receiving, purchasing – anything except assembly or electrical engineering.

Taking care of our customers is absolutely the most important thing. After all, they pay our bills and all of our salaries. I’ll drop everything to ship a rush order.

TP: What makes ISIS special?

Steve: We’re privately held, and virtually everyone who has a share in the company works here, so there is an intense drive for the company to do well. Not just financially, but everyone is driven to try to do everything correctly. When we make a mistake, it drives us crazy, and everybody gets involved until we get it right. That level of ownership is unique – and it’s because so many of us are actually owners.

Also, in this small community – Grass Valley is a very small town – we’ve all worked together and known each other long before we started ISIS. Many of us have known each other for more than thirty years. We’re a close group, like a family – and in fact, many family members work here.

We do all our design, engineering, and assembly here in Grass Valley, which is also rather unique. It gives us more control over our processes. Technically our products are sound and reliable, a good match for anything offered by our competitors. But in this industry that isn’t really an edge, because practically everyone makes good products.

Some of our products really have no competition. We’ve designed unique products that are well-engineered to satisfy needs that aren’t being addressed by the big guys.

We really do focus on service. Every person in the company will do everything they possibly can to take care of whatever a customer needs. We haven’t been perfect, and we never will be – but we give it everything we’ve got. And we agonize about those times when we can’t give a customer what they want.

TP: How does ISIS fit in the industry today?

Steve: Well, Len said we were a zit right now, but I think we’re more of a boil – we’re a little larger and a little more painful for our competitors.

Actually, we have products that are in several industries. In the broadcast arena, we’re a small player with niche products with our routing switchers, protection switchers, and converters. We’re growing nicely in those niche markets, where some of our products are unique. In the multimedia and presentation field we are very small, but we have customers who rave about our products, so we hope to grow dramatically there. Then, in the post-production market, with our acquisition of Graham-Patten, and with the new products we’ve introduced, we have a very respectable place. Graham-Patten Systems have been around for much longer than ISIS, and has a great reputation.

TP: What do you see as the future of ISIS?

Steve: I hope that with our constant new product development, we can continue to grow, so we can play a bigger role in employment in the local community. It would be really neat at some point for ISIS to be as recognized and respected a name as anyone in the industry, no matter how big we are.

TP: What kind of work did you do before you helped found ISIS?

Steve: I started working in 1974 in the San Francisco Bay Area in several manufacturing and accounting positions in high-tech firms. In 1980 I moved to the Sierra Foothills to work at Grass Valley Group. During my years there, I was a Division Finance Manager, then the European Region Finance Manager. That was an interesting assignment; I worked closely with Len and lived in Winchester in the UK for several years. For a history buff, that was a perfect place to live.

In 1991, after the Group was sold, I moved back to the Bay Area. I was the Chief Financial Officer for three high-tech companies during that time. By then my roots were here in the foothills, so I moved back to Grass Valley, and commuted to the Bay Area for a couple of years.

Then, in 1997, Len asked if I was interested in helping to found ISIS, and I jumped at the chance. It’s been a great ride. In 2004, we purchased two companies in the same year. Comprep was our assembly company, and one of the partners needed to get out, so we bought the business. Then the opportunity came to buy Graham-Patten. It was a risk – we weren’t a big company – but it’s worked out very well.

TP: What about your personal life?

Steve: I’ve been married for 22 years to Brenda – I love short Italian women with short Italian tempers! She makes me laugh, and has every day for the past 23 years. We met when we both worked at Grass Valley Group. Every so often she comes to work at ISIS – she’s an expert at Purchasing – but then I make her mad and she quits.

We have three children and five grandchildren. Our grandkids all live within a few miles, so we see them almost every day.

TP: Do you have any heroes?

Steve: I admire a range of people. For example, Len Dole is one of my heroes – he’s been my mentor over the years, and I respect his knowledge, his wide industry relationships, and his business style.

I think Barry Bonds is the best baseball player ever – hands down!

John and Bobby Kennedy accomplished amazing things in a short time. I admire John McCain for what he went through and how he came out of it to become a Senator - he’s a hero as a person.

Brian Lamb is another. He helped found C-SPAN and runs it, presenting politics, differing views, and history, all without interpretation or ego. And he’s from Indiana, too!

Finally, the young men in our military service are my personal heroes. Through my son, who was a Navy Chief, and my brother-in-law, a Chief in the Navy Seals, I’ve gotten to know a bunch of young Navy guys, and I’ve just got the greatest respect for them. And not just the kids – my son had some great Commanders who made a real difference in his life.

TP: What is your life philosophy?

Steve: Hmmmm – it may sound like a cliché, but I like “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” The Golden Rule makes a lot of sense, and offers a roadmap for decisions in business and in personal life.