Gene Haas
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Gene Francis Haas (born November 12, 1952) is founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, one of the world's leading CNC machine tool manufacturers. He also founded a NASCAR team.
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[edit] Haas Automation
Haas graduated from California State University Northridge in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance. He originally majored in engineering but switched to business after Lockheed nearly went bankrupt. Ironically, after graduation he was unable to find employment in business that paid more than what he was earning at his summer machine shop job. So, for the next few years he worked as a machinist and NC programmer. In 1978, he opened Pro-turn Engineering, a small machine shop with two employees; Tony Cortez and Abel Bugarin.
In 1980, Haas noticed that it took Bugarin a long time to manually position an indexer. Haas thought building his own indexer with a stepper motor drive would make his shop more efficient. He built one for himself and few more for other machine shops. In March 1983, he displayed his indexer at WESTEC (an industry expo). After seeing the positive reaction of attendees, he decided to form Haas Automation to mass produce them. His first commercial product, the HBI-5C (Haas Brothers Indexer), sold well because it was programmable and inexpensive. In 1986, Haas and a partner were awarded a U.S. Patent for their invention. [1]
In 1988, Haas started production on a fully enclosed CNC machining center priced at $49,900, well below the competition. Over time, Haas machine tools became extremely popular, mostly because they are simple, very affordable, and because the in-house designed computer control is operator-friendly (no soft-keys or cryptic menus). Haas Automation is now the largest machine tool manufacturer in the United States. [2]
[edit] Haas CNC Racing (NASCAR)
Haas CNC Racing is a NASCAR racing team based in Kannapolis, North Carolina which runs Chevrolets. The team is owned by Gene Haas and runs the Haas Automation #70 Chevy, driven by Jeremy Mayfield, and the State Water Heaters #66 Chevy driven by Scott Riggs. The team receives engine and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports.
[edit] Philanthropic activities
Haas has used his position as a successful businessman to share with the local community. Haas Automation and Haas were the recipient of the Roy Pinkerton Award, presented by United Way, Ventura County Chapter.[3] Many engineering colleges have "CNC Labs" outfitted with machines he donated, including California State University Channel Islands [4] and California State University Northridge. [5]
[edit] Criminal tax evasion
On the morning of June 19, 2006, Haas was arrested by IRS agents for investigation of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy. Four others were indicted together with Haas.
Haas initialy plead not guilty, but after all four of the co-indicted plead guilty and just before his case was to go to trial, a plea agreement was reached with Haas pleading guilty on one count.
Haas made full restitution to the IRS and is currently serving a 24 month sentence in federal prison. His projected release date is October 6, 2009.
