Automotive Supply Leader Fred Bauer of Gentex Corp. Awarded
16 November 1998
Automotive Supply Leader Fred Bauer of Gentex Corp. is Named the 1998 National Ernst & Young Master Entrepreneur of the Year
NEW YORK--Nov. 15, 1998--
Zeeland, Mich. Company Founder Honored at 12th Annual Awards
Conference Recognizing Business Leaders for the Next Millennium
Rare is the ability to parlay one's technical passion into creating an organization so lauded for its proprietary firsts that it continually sets the pace for its industry. But that is the story of Fred Bauer, who has been named the 1998 National Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) in the Master Entrepreneur category.
Mr. Bauer, founder, chairman and CEO of Zeeland, Mich.-based Gentex Corp., has had a career punctuated by innovation, combining his business instincts with electronics prowess to revolutionize two industries and invent a third.
Mr. Bauer was selected by an independent panel of judges from finalists in the Master Entrepreneur category, which stipulates that candidates have the ability to maintain management excellence including sustained innovation over a period of at least five years.
Mr. Bauer and others receiving top honors in each of 12 categories were among 36 finalists culled from 492 Entrepreneur Of The Year regional award recipients. All honorees were lauded this weekend at the world's largest gathering of entrepreneurs, the 12th Annual Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year International Conference in Palm Springs, Calif.
"Entrepreneurs such as Fred Bauer and all national and regional Entrepreneur Of The Year award recipients ultimately improve the quality of life in America and beyond by proving that exceptional ideas are forever worthy of pursuit," notes Gregory K. Ericksen, National Director of Entrepreneurial Services for Ernst & Young. "Not only are their products and services generating jobs and pushing their respective industries to the next level of innovation and growth, they are forever changing the way future generations will see the world."
An Inventor Transfixed by Challenge
Inventors are born, not made, and they cannot resist the perpetual lure of problems needing solutions. At 23, armed with a degree in business and electronics, Fred Bauer started his first factory to produce sophisticated electronic furnace control units, the need for which he observed in his father's furnace business. In a few short years, his company, Simicon, was snapped up by Fortune 500 giant Robertshaw Controls. Armed with photoelectric sensing knowledge, capital, and an awareness of a need for better smoke detection, Bauer co-invented the world's first photoelectric sensor device installed in a smoke detector. Today, millions of Gentex smoke detectors can be found in commercial facilities throughout North America.
Bauer took Gentex public in 1981, in part to help fund a new and precarious venture--developing automatic-dimming rearview mirrors. For two decades, auto manufacturers had sought the answer to making nighttime driving safer; Bauer's instincts told him his expertise in electronics and electro-optical sensing technologies held the key. First to market, Gentex introduced to the world a motorized auto-dimming mirror.
Just five years later, Bauer did the unthinkable, obsoleting his own product by achieving what the scientific community thought impossible. In 1987 Gentex introduced the world's first electrochromic (EC) mirror with optical sensors detecting vehicle glare from the rear. Gentex's continued approach to success is to harness innovation and continually reinvent its product lines to prevent stagnation.
Gentex maintains a 90 percent market share in EC-mirror supply, a five-year compounded revenue growth of 33 percent and net income growth of 64 percent. Future projects include mirrors of the future--with advanced electronic features and displays--and EC glass for automotive and architectural applications, including energy-saving "smart windows."
In the Master Entrepreneur Of The Year category, national finalists are: Carl Albert, chairman and CEO, Fairchild Aerospace Corp., a manufacturer of 30-90 seat jet airliners and large-cabin business jets, San Antonio, Tex.; and Joseph Charles, founder, president and CEO, Charles Industries, Ltd., an international manufacturer of specialized technical products for the telecommunications industry, Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Twelve Categories of Recognition
The national award recipients were honored in 12 categories, including the first-ever Young Entrepreneur Of The Year category, created to recognize the extraordinary achievements in the under-30 age bracket. Other categories include: Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year; Master Entrepreneur Of The Year; Internet Products & Services Entrepreneur Of The Year; Technology/Communications Entrepreneur Of The Year; Manufacturing Entrepreneur Of The Year; Health Care/Life Sciences Entrepreneur Of The Year; Service Entrepreneur Of The Year; Real Estate/Construction Entrepreneur Of The Year; Retail/Consumer Products Entrepreneur Of The Year; and Supporter of Entrepreneurship Entrepreneur Of The Year.
Total employment at the 33 companies representing the Entrepreneur Of The Year national award recipients and finalists (Supporter of Entrepreneurship excluded) is 1,597 employees, with combined revenues in excess of $185 billion. Eighteen public companies and 15 private companies are represented, with an annual percentage of growth of 40.3 percent.
Additionally, for the second year, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, co-chairman of Franklin Covey Co., presented the Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute Award for Principle Centered Leadership(R). The award, which recognizes entrepreneurs who have achieved outstanding business results in a deeply principled manner, went to Patricia Gallup of PC Connection, a New Hampshire-based company.
The Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program was founded by professional services firm Ernst & Young LLP in 1986 to honor outstanding entrepreneurs whose ingenuity and perseverance have created and sustained successful growing business ventures. It is sponsored nationally by Ernst & Young, USA Today, the Nasdaq Stock Market and Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Inc. at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Additional support is provided by Investor's Business Daily.
Award recipients in the 12 national categories will be featured in USA Today, profiled in a special annual issue of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year magazine, and, on Wednesday, November 18, featured in a two-hour nationally syndicated radio show, "The Dolans." On Saturday, November 21 at 9:30 p.m. EST, CNN "Managing" will feature the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year program.
The more than 2,000 conference attendees include current and past Entrepreneur Of The Year recipients from around the world. Among this year's awards gala honorees were 492 regional award winners announced earlier this year in 47 local competitions. All regional award recipients are inducted into the Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute as lifetime members.
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The Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute(R) was created to celebrate the accomplishments of the world's outstanding entrepreneurs and to make the general public more aware of the benefits they provide to our society. Membership is limited exclusively to Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) award recipients.
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