Ailing Yuen Felt He Had to Move Fast

When Thomas C. K. Yuen co-founded AST Research Inc. in 1980, he already knew that he was not a well man.

A life-threatening kidney condition, which led to debilitating dialysis treatment over the past decade, gave the immigrant from Hong Kong an intense desire to succeed in his business, he said in an April interview.

To some, that zeal came across as a heavy-handed management style, and some people speculated Monday that it may have precipitated his abrupt departure. Others said Yuen stepped aside because of concerns about his health. Company officials say the decision was based purely on the conclusion that a single chief executive would be more efficient.

In April, Yuen had said he was devastated when he learned that his kidneys were going to fail. The diagnosis, he said then, “told me that I needed to accomplish something within 10 to 15 years to free myself financially.”

He did just that. AST ranked No. 431 on the Fortune 500 this year. And Yuen lives in a 9,000-square-foot home in a gated community in Newport Beach. By his own estimate, his personal fortune totals about $70 million.

Yuen, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, acknowledged in April that he was losing the battle for his health and trying desperately to find alternatives to an organ transplant.

Some former employees say that the painful dialysis treatment he undergoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays makes his temper flare.

Yuen was born in 1952, the Year of the Dragon. The son of a chauffeur, he emigrated from Hong Kong to the United States as a poor student in 1970. He worked as a waiter for $1.25 an hour plus tips to pay for his education at Orange Coast College. He became an engineer and caused a stir in his traditional Chinese family when he married a Japanese woman, Misa, who was also studying at the school.

In 1973, doctors told Yuen that he would eventually have to undergo dialysis because of an unexplained kidney problem. The news, he said, unnerved him: The annual cost of the treatments would exceed his income as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Co.

In 1974, he was laid off. He rebuilt his career as an engineer in the minicomputer industry, where he met future partner Safi U. Qureshey. Both men complained about their slow progress into management, and they eventually decided to take control of their own destiny as engineers.

In July, 1980, they teamed up with Albert C. Wong, who had been Yuen’s college roommate, to start AST. Years later, observers described Wong as technically brilliant, Yuen as the marketing maverick and Qureshey as the leader in dealing with customers and the outside world.

The three were known as the Three Musketeers because they worked together on all AST projects. But frequent disputes nearly fractured the fledgling partnership, the men later acknowledged. Wong resigned in November, 1988, after a bitter argument with Yuen over the launch of a product. The co-founders have all said since that they have put the past behind them. The turmoil, however, appears to have lingered.

AST’s middle management has been in upheaval for about a year, and some blame the departures of key vice presidents and top engineers on Yuen’s style. His moods, whatever their cause, have alienated people.

“If you wanted to get something done, you’d say Tom wanted it done,” one former AST employee said. “That also had its down side. It was common knowledge that it wasn’t good to schedule meetings with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when he was on dialysis.”

Other former executives say such remarks are the talk of the disgruntled. Yuen has his rough edges, they say, but he is not a tyrant.

“He’s a dynamic, brilliant individual,” a former AST executive said. “There are very few people who could keep up with him, and I think that led to frustration.”

In November, Yuen called a number of top managers together and criticized them in what several described later as “gutter language.”

Some middle managers, such as Genelle Trader, a vice president of portable computer marketing, have since departed. The top engineers who designed AST’s best-selling computers and notebook computers have also left.

New Chairman Carmelo J. Santoro said the board of directors’ management review that led to Monday’s announcement did not address such issues as Yuen’s management style.

On the subject of his future and possible retirement, Yuen said in April, “As AST continues to become a mature company, I’d like to free myself to concentrate on strategic issues and to figure out what I really want to do.”