TECHNOLOGY : 300 AST Research Alumni Rub Elbows at Reunion in Irvine
AST Research Inc., the Fortune 500 computer manufacturer that rose from humble beginnings in a garage, has seeded the computer industry with a lot of business legends and offspring.
Thomas C.K. Yuen, one of three co-founders of AST, was only the latest of many employees who left the fast-paced Irvine computer manufacturer to seek, or take, their fortunes elsewhere.
So it was only a matter of time before they all got together for a reunion. Yuen was among 300 AST alumni who attended a posh reunion bash at the Sports Club Irvine on Saturday night.
The affair, underwritten by Yuen and other alumni, featured a live band, champagne and a carnival atmosphere. Organizers are collecting addresses for a directory of AST alumni, estimated to be about 350.
“You don’t see this happen with other companies,” said Stephen LaCount, a former AST attorney and one of the party organizers. “AST was a pretty unique place.”
At least half a dozen former top executives showed up, some of whom had not talked to each other since leaving AST.
Besides Yuen, who left last summer, the guest list included Genelle Trader, former portable computer marketing executive, now searching for a job after a stint at competitor Everex Systems; James Ashbrook, former senior vice president, and John C. Olson, a former head of manufacturing, who left for personal reasons, took on a brief project for Dell Computer Corp. in Austin, Tex., and is now retired in Laguna Niguel. Others attending included Tom Craft and Tom Ludwig, two star engineers who left to form an Irvine-based research division for a Hong Kong computer firm.
Many asked Yuen--who amassed a fortune worth tens of millions of dollars on AST’s meteoric rise to a Fortune 500 company--what his future plans are. Yuen, who had previously said he was eager to start a new company, said he wanted a chance to relax.
“I’m not planning to do anything until next year,” Yuen said. “My wife is really happy now that I left, and I’m concentrating on improving my health.”
The alumni attendees included numerous other veterans who have become top executives at other companies: Chuck Cortright and Angela Aber, the top executives of the Graphix Zone in Irvine; Klaus Allmendinger, executive vice president of Workstation Technologies Inc. in Irvine, a maker and designer of add-on circuit boards; Raymond C. Lee, chief operating officer of NewGen Systems Corp., a Fountain Valley laser printer manufacturer, and Howard Derman, who left as AST’s human resources executive to form his own consulting firm, the Howard Group, in Irvine.
Notably absent: Albert Wong, one of AST’s co-founders who left in 1988 and started his own rival company Amkly Systems, a computer company in Irvine. John Tu and David Sun, top executives of AST spinoff Kingston Technology Inc. in Fountain Valley, also were no-shows.
Not invited: Safi Qureshey, current chief executive, and other current AST employees.
