Gene Haas
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Gene Francis Haas (born November 12, 1952) is founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, one of the world's leading CNC machine tool manufacturers. He also founded a NASCAR team, Haas CNC Racing now known as Stewart Haas Racing.
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[edit] Haas Automation
Haas graduated from California State University Northridge in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance. He originally majored in engineering but switched to business after Lockheed nearly went bankrupt. Ironically, after graduation he was unable to find employment in business that paid more than what he was earning at his summer machine shop job. So, for the next few years he worked as a machinist and NC programmer. In 1978, he opened Pro-turn Engineering, a small machine shop with two employees; Tony Cortez and Abel Bugarin.
In 1980, Haas noticed that it took Bugarin a long time to manually position an indexer. Haas thought building his own indexer with a stepper motor drive would make his shop more efficient. He built one for himself and few more for other machine shops. In March 1983, he displayed his indexer at WESTEC (an industry expo). After seeing the positive reaction of attendees, he decided to form Haas Automation to mass produce them. His first commercial product, the HBI-5C (Haas Brothers Indexer), sold well because it was programmable and inexpensive. In 1986, Haas and a partner were awarded a U.S. Patent for their invention. [1]
In 1988, Haas started production on a fully enclosed CNC machining center priced at $49,900, well below the competition. Over time, Haas machine tools became extremely popular, mostly because they are simple, very affordable, and because the in-house designed computer control is operator-friendly (no soft-keys or cryptic menus). [2]
By 1996, Haas had outgrown its facilities in Chatsworth, California and began a search that ultimately brought it to the coastal community of Oxnard, California. In March 1997, the move was completed into the Oxnard factory, a 420,000 squate-foot facility. By 2005, the factory had been expanded to 1 million square feet.
Haas Automation is now the largest machine tool manufacturer in the United States. Sales for 2008 reached a record reportedly just under $1 billion worldwide.
[edit] Haas CNC Racing
In 2002, Gene Haas formed a new NASCAR race team, Haas CNC Racing. After purchasing the Concord, North Carolina-based Craftsman Truck Race facility from Hendrick Motorsports, Haas CNC Racing began work on its first entry in the Nextel Cup (now Sprint Cup) series as a single-car team. The first entry for the new team was September 30, 2002 with driver Jack Sprague who finished 35th after a crash. The team raced only 3 times in 2002. By 2003 the team was running full time with several driver changes over the season. By 2006 the team had relocated to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Kannapplis, North Carolina and was fielding a second full-time team. At the end of 2008, the team was still struggling with a total 6+ year average finish of just under 27th place.
[edit] Stewart-Haas Racing
Late in 2008, Gene Haas announced that he would join forces with NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. The new operation, named Stewart-Haas Racing, began operating in January 2009. Currently, both Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman drive cars in the Nexel Cup Series.
[edit] Wind Shear Wind Tunnel
In 2006 planning began for a commercial wind tunnel. Gene Haas commissioned California-based Triliad Development to oversee the project. The facility was designed to be the most advanced automotive wind tunnel in the world. The facility is centered around an MTS rolling road which allows a car to be restrained in place directly on top of a massive tread mill-like machine with a 70 foot long by 10 foot wide by 1 mm thick stainless steel belt rotating at speeds up to 180 mph. The rolling road accurately simulates the dynamics of a car on the race track, unlike traditional fixed-floor tunnels. Construction of the new wind tunnel began in 2007 and was completed by year-end. After six months of commissioning, the wind tunnel opened to its first customer, a Formula One race team, in July 2008. Today the Wind Shear facilty counts numerous NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One and ALMS teams as customers. Wind Shear is owned 100% by Gene Haas.
[edit] Philanthropic activities
Haas has used his position as a successful businessman to share with the local community. Haas Automation and Haas were the recipient of the Roy Pinkerton Award, presented by United Way, Ventura County Chapter.[3] Many engineering colleges have "CNC Labs" outfitted with machines he donated, including California State University Channel Islands [4] and California State University Northridge. [5]
The Gene Haas Foundation
The Gene Haas Foundation was formed in 1999 to fund the needs of the local community and other deserving charities, at the discretion of its founder, Mr. Gene Haas. Of special importance to the Gene Haas Foundation are children’s charities and organizations that feed the poor, especially within the local community of Ventura County. In addition, the Gene Haas Foundation provides scholarship funds to Community Colleges and Vocational Schools for students entering technical training programs, especially machinist-based certificate and degree programs.
The Gene Haas Foundation has been a major supporter of local, Ventura County-area charities in recent years. Since its formation in 1999, the Foundation has provided more than 8.5 million dollars in grants to organizations such as The United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Ventura County Food Share, American Red Cross, YMCA, Casa Pacifica, American Cancer Society, California State University Northridge, Rain Transitional Living Center, Salvation Army, National MS Society, Ventura County Rescue Mission, and many more.2
In 2009, the Gene Haas Foundation published the website "http://ghaasfoundation.org/"
[edit] Criminal tax evasion
On the morning of June 19, 2006, Haas was arrested by IRS agents for investigation of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy. Four others were indicted together with Haas.
Haas initially pled not guilty, but after all four of the co-indicted plead guilty and just before his case was to go to trial, a plea agreement was reached with Haas pleading guilty on one count.
Haas made full restitution to the IRS and has served a fraction of a 24 month sentence in federal prison. He was released to a halfway house in November of 2008. Since February of 2009, he has been living at his home and working at Haas Automation.
During his imprisonment, Haas was ordered to relinquish his NASCAR team to Margaret Haas and team general manager Joe Custer. As of January 2009, the race team is jointly owned by Gene Haas and Tony Stewart and is named "Stewart-Haas Racing". Gene Haas was present at the first team win in May of 2009 when Tony Stewart won the All-Star race.
[edit] References
2. Gene Haas Foundation data provided by Manager, Gene Haas Foundation, 2800 Sturgis Road, Oxnard, California 93030
[edit] External links
- Official Haas Automation UK website
- Official Haas CNC Racing website
- Haas' biography at Haas Automation
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