Gary Hufton was appointed the Director of Hardware engineering in 1985. He was given the job, a de facto position he still holds nearly 25 years later, after the first two directors were fired. Tepid market reaction to the Tricon prototypes and unmet schedules prompted an impatient Triconex board to change personnel quickly in the early days. At the time, William Barkovitz Sr. was the Vice President of Sales for Triconex, and he recognized that Gary and a colleague, applications engineer Bill Chiles would be effective spokesman for the startup, so in addition to leading product development, Gary had a heavy travel schedule.
He was born in North Carolina and moved to Southern California and obtained an EE from the California State University in Northridge. After school, he went to work for Hughes, part of the booming aerospace industry in the area. Later, he moved to a smaller company, General Automation, where he gained experience with control systems and found he enjoyed working for smaller, more nimble firms. When David Smith, a colleague at General Automation, invited him to join a startup called Triconex, Gary was ready for the challenge of getting in on the ground floor of building a new product and the opportunity to make more money if the startup succeeded. The year was 1984. He was newly married and starting a young family, so the risks were real in making the jump.
One of the first stops for Gary and Bill on their product introduction tour was to meet Troy Martel at the Exxon testing labs in New Jersey. Troy was leading the testing efforts for Exxon to evaluate vendors for a new safety system for their refineries. The tragedy at Bhopal in December, 1984 sparked public outrage and new government regulations that pressured the petro-chemical companies into greater efforts to improve safety. When Troy asked Gary and Bill if their Tricon prototype was ready to pass the Exxon tests, they replied that it was not ready. Troy was impressed with their sincerity and told them to come back when it was. They returned a year later and the Tricon performed sufficiently well for Troy to recommend that Exxon purchase systems from Triconex to Bob Adamski, an Exxon safety systems manager based in Baytown, Texas at the massive Exxon refinery there.
Exxon agreed to purchase 50 systems, then renamed the Tricon safety critical controller, from Triconex in 1986, a big day for the new company. But, there was a catch. A big one. A petro-chemical giant like Exxon was not going to trust a new vendor based in Orange County, California to supply their safety systems. What if the new company was not going to survive, a very real possibility for any startup that had run through venture capital for nearly three years without returns.
As the new CEO, Bill Barkovitz, anticipated this and had earlier forged an alliance with Honeywell, a well established supplier to industry with their Distributed Control Systems (DCS). The alliance was signed in January, 1986 and Bill Barkovitz was appointed CEO of Triconex a month later. Among the Triconex board members at the time was Ed Hurd, a Honeywell executive. So, in order to seal the deal with Exxon, Triconex agreed to manufacture 50 TRICON’s at the Honeywell plant in Phoenix, Arizona. In essence, Honeywell agreed to become a distributor for Triconex. Even if the startup failed, Honeywell was certain to continue and could build the Tricon itself. A partnership between Triconex and Honeywell got off to a wonderful start and a mutually beneficial alliance remained until Triconex was acquired, not by Honeywell, but by Siebe, an acquisitive London based firm, in 1995. The first Triconex systems and many after were sold under the Honeywell name while Triconex slowly built their brand.
Next, in the History of a Safer World, an interview with Gary Hufton, and what is he doing today? We will ask him why did the investors allow Triconex to continue after heavy losses and an uncertain outlook. What was the secret sauce that enabled Triconex to become the world's number one safety system? Was it the technology, the culture, or the desperation of risk taking engineers?
He was born in North Carolina and moved to Southern California and obtained an EE from the California State University in Northridge. After school, he went to work for Hughes, part of the booming aerospace industry in the area. Later, he moved to a smaller company, General Automation, where he gained experience with control systems and found he enjoyed working for smaller, more nimble firms. When David Smith, a colleague at General Automation, invited him to join a startup called Triconex, Gary was ready for the challenge of getting in on the ground floor of building a new product and the opportunity to make more money if the startup succeeded. The year was 1984. He was newly married and starting a young family, so the risks were real in making the jump.
One of the first stops for Gary and Bill on their product introduction tour was to meet Troy Martel at the Exxon testing labs in New Jersey. Troy was leading the testing efforts for Exxon to evaluate vendors for a new safety system for their refineries. The tragedy at Bhopal in December, 1984 sparked public outrage and new government regulations that pressured the petro-chemical companies into greater efforts to improve safety. When Troy asked Gary and Bill if their Tricon prototype was ready to pass the Exxon tests, they replied that it was not ready. Troy was impressed with their sincerity and told them to come back when it was. They returned a year later and the Tricon performed sufficiently well for Troy to recommend that Exxon purchase systems from Triconex to Bob Adamski, an Exxon safety systems manager based in Baytown, Texas at the massive Exxon refinery there.
Exxon agreed to purchase 50 systems, then renamed the Tricon safety critical controller, from Triconex in 1986, a big day for the new company. But, there was a catch. A big one. A petro-chemical giant like Exxon was not going to trust a new vendor based in Orange County, California to supply their safety systems. What if the new company was not going to survive, a very real possibility for any startup that had run through venture capital for nearly three years without returns.
As the new CEO, Bill Barkovitz, anticipated this and had earlier forged an alliance with Honeywell, a well established supplier to industry with their Distributed Control Systems (DCS). The alliance was signed in January, 1986 and Bill Barkovitz was appointed CEO of Triconex a month later. Among the Triconex board members at the time was Ed Hurd, a Honeywell executive. So, in order to seal the deal with Exxon, Triconex agreed to manufacture 50 TRICON’s at the Honeywell plant in Phoenix, Arizona. In essence, Honeywell agreed to become a distributor for Triconex. Even if the startup failed, Honeywell was certain to continue and could build the Tricon itself. A partnership between Triconex and Honeywell got off to a wonderful start and a mutually beneficial alliance remained until Triconex was acquired, not by Honeywell, but by Siebe, an acquisitive London based firm, in 1995. The first Triconex systems and many after were sold under the Honeywell name while Triconex slowly built their brand.
Next, in the History of a Safer World, an interview with Gary Hufton, and what is he doing today? We will ask him why did the investors allow Triconex to continue after heavy losses and an uncertain outlook. What was the secret sauce that enabled Triconex to become the world's number one safety system? Was it the technology, the culture, or the desperation of risk taking engineers?
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