Laser Firm Names Borman Chairman, Chief Executive

Frank Borman, the former astronaut who quit as chairman of loss-plagued Eastern Airlines two years ago, was named chairman and chief executive of Patlex Corp.

Patlex, a laser firm based in Chatsworth, also announced plans to spin off its manufacturing lines into a new company to be headed by Richard Samuel, Patlex’s current chairman. Borman, 60, who has been a Patlex director since April, will oversee Patlex’s remaining business of licensing laser patents.

Samuel said in a telephone interview that Borman’s job largely will focus on how to reinvest that licensing income, which Patlex expects to grow sharply in the years ahead. Because “this is an ill-defined task before him,” Borman was selected for “his extensive experience, background, maturity,” Samuel said.

“The role of the chairman is going to be a planning role of how to make that cash most beneficial to the stockholders,” Samuel said.

Borman will work at Patlex’s headquarters about once a week while maintaining his residence in Las Cruces, N.M., Samuel said.

Borman captured the nation’s attention during his flight aboard Apollo 8 in 1968, when he read from the Book of Genesis as his space capsule orbited the moon on Christmas Eve. In 1976 he became chief executive of Eastern, and resigned in June, 1986, when the carrier was acquired by Texas Air Corp., which also owns Continental Airlines.

Initially, Borman was a popular leader at Eastern. But his last few years there were contentious, marked by the constant wrangling between Borman and Eastern’s labor unions over who was to blame for the airline’s massive losses, which totaled $415 million during Borman’s last six years as chairman.

About 72% of Patlex’s $15.8 million in 1987 revenue came from its manufacturing divisions, which make lasers and electronic components. The rest came from royalties on laser patents held by Gordon Gould, a laser pioneer and currently Patlex’s vice chairman.

Patlex gets 64% of Gould patent royalties because the company helped finance Gould’s 30-year legal fight to secure the patents. Gould only recently won his battle, and now Patlex expects its licensing income to swell as more companies are required to pay royalties to use Gould’s technology.

Patlex’s spinoff proposal calls for its existing stockholders to receive one common share in the new company for every two Patlex shares they currently own. Patlex’s common stock rose $1.50 a share, to $13, in national over-the-counter trading Wednesday.