Roster of Executives Encompasses a Broad Range of Experience

Former Xerox executive Harry C. Stevenson has assembled a roster of more than 125 former managers in Orange County to serve as the core of Southern California’s first interim management service.

A look at several of the one-time executives whom Stevenson plans to offer prospective clients illustrates the broad range of experience that such a firm can offer:

- Yvonne Vick, 42, is a UCLA graduate who started her own consulting and training business in 1986 after 17 years in telecommunications and computer marketing. Vick said she is interested in interim management as an alternative to consulting because it will give her the opportunity to get back into hands-on management without having to give up the freedom she has found in self-employment.

“What a company can get out of hiring an interim manager is experience and unbiased advice,” she said. “What we get out of it is the opportunity to add to our experience and keep our professional edge.”

- Larry LeDoux, 53, has owned three businesses and most recently was a full-time business instructor at Chapman College in Orange. He left earlier this year rather than commit himself to obtaining a doctorate, he said.

A graduate of the University of Rhode Island with an MBA from Pepperdine, LeDoux now operates his own business consulting service but has signed on with Stevenson at Arhness Coventry “because it offers a broader scope. I want to combine the practical experience I have gained owning three businesses--one was a flop, one was mediocre and one was very successful--with my teaching experience. I think it makes for a powerful tool that others can benefit from.”

- Bill Simons, 60, a former chief operating officer of a large manufacturing firm, said he left that job early this year when the absentee owners came back and decided they wanted to run the place themselves.

‘A Lot of Different Experiences’

“Since leaving, I’ve been looking for a business to acquire and I’ve been interviewing with various firms,” Simons said. He hooked up with Stevenson “because the concept attracted me. It seems to offer a lot of different experiences.” Simons, who holds engineering degrees from Cal Tech and USC, also spent 27 years at Circle Seal Corp., where he was a vice president for manufacturing and engineering.

- Barbara Taylor, 44, has operated her own management consulting business since 1985. She has also headed the nonprofit Orange County Business Development Center since its founding in 1986 by the county Chamber of Commerce. Taylor said that she started her own business after running the computer center at USC for 4 years “because I got tired of traveling all the time.” She came to California in 1981 after 17 years at the University of Maryland, where she was associate director of the administrative computer center.

Taylor met Stevenson as he was getting his business started, and “the idea intrigued me, so I decided to try it. I’ve been tracking changes in the management scene for years, and this whole idea of interim management is indicative of a big new change.”

- Leslie Simon, 72, is both the oldest and the most experienced member of Stevenson’s core team. A native of Hungary, he is an engineer and holds a doctorate in human behavior and industrial leadership. He came to the United States in 1952 and went to work for Ampex Corp. and then Burroughs, where he held several management posts before retiring in 1977. He then joined Control Data’s communications systems division in Anaheim. Simon retired for a second time in 1987 and joined the Small Business Administration-sponsored Service Corps of Retired Executives program. “I lecture at schools and counsel with business people who are just getting started or are having problems.”

Simon said he is interested in temporary management assignments to keep his skills sharpened and to continue sharing “my 45 years of manufacturing experience.” To make a success of the interim management concept, he said, “we have to offer companies a fresh look, a wider experience than they have in-house and an innovative approach to solving the problems they are struggling with.”