Wednesday, October 27, 2010

2010 All-Stars

MHT Distinguished Achievement Award winner Bernard Gordon: A love of engineering

The former chairman, CEO and founder of Analogic Corp. launched that stalwart of the Massachusetts technology sector in 1964 as Gordon Engineering.

Who he is: For technology and business executives, Bernard Gordon is one of those people who needs no introduction. The company created the world’s first solid-state X-ray generator, and imaging technology has been a part of what Gordon has been focused on ever since. Analogic has been involved in almost all types of analog-to-digital signal conversion, from ultrasound to digital imaging for laser printers to the first CT scanner for use in airport luggage screening.

The early years: The man who has helped drive innovation for decades started out as an introverted nerd in Springfield, fascinated with radios and engineering, and getting regularly beaten up “by the Irish kids.” With engineer-like precision, Gordon sought to solve the problem by turning to an uncle who was a physical instructor in the Army and who taught him how to fight. The instructions took so well that from junior high through his service in the U.S. Navy, Gordon was a competitive boxer.

Track record: In addition to co-founding EPSCO Inc., Analogic Corp., NeuroLogica Corp. and Photo Diagnostic Systems Inc., Gordon holds patents as the inventor of technologies such as the high-speed analog-to-digital converter, the instant imaging computer-aided tomography scanner, Digital Doppler radar, the fetal monitor and the first airport luggage bomb-detection device. Gordon placed all of his shares in Analogic in a charitable trust that donates money as it sells shares. It is estimated that by the time the shares run out, the trust will have given away approximately $300 million. Recipients include MIT, Tufts University, Northeastern University, Salem State University, the Museum of Science Boston and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, MIT.

What makes him tick: “I was always sort of an introverted kid who would rather build something — a radio or a dog house. I always wanted to be an engineer as far back as I can remember. I went to school in Springfield and in junior high school we had a course in radio.”

On managers versus leaders: “Generally a leader is getting people to do things that they would not otherwise do. This in turn relates to the education of engineers, which I have been heavily involved in for the last decade or so. When you are dealing with creative engineers they are more likely than not to be somewhat introverted — self conscious, trying to prove themselves but they can be relatively shy about it. The leader has to take the risk off the back of the other engineers, knowing full well that they can do the job better than he can.”

What people don’t know: “Professor (William) Radford made a bet with me that I couldn’t build a TV station at MIT and get it on the air before WBZ got on the air. I put together a little team to help me. One of them was Amar Bose and the other was Arch Luther, who later became the vice president of engineering for RCA Labs. The three of us built a station and had it working on May Day in 1948.”

On his first encounter with EPSCO co-founder Joe Davis: “I met him on a ship in the North Atlantic. We were both in the Navy, we were reserve officers. I was literally throwing up over the side when I met Joe Davis. Turned out he lived in Concord and I did. We swept out his basement and that’s where we started EPSCO.”

— Rodney H. Brown
 

Eric Bailey on Bernard Gordon
Eric Bailey is co-founder, with Gordon, and CEO of NeuroLogica Corp., a Danvers maker of portable computed tomography scanners.  Bailey had been working on guidance systems, and Gordon brought him to work on developing the first multi-slice CT system. He went on to work on other medical and security scanners for Analogic. When Gordon announced his retirement from Analogic, Bailey saw it as a good opportunity to launch his own startup, focusing on brain imaging technology. Gordon came on board as the company’s initial backer and co-founder.

What drives him: “I’ve never seen anybody love engineering as much as him. He just absolutely loves it, and he loves to practice it. You hear that term R&D and he really likes the development. He likes to build something society needs even before it knows it needs it. One example of that is the fetal monitor. He developed the fetal monitor in 1957. That has driven him over and over again. Now, in the later part of life, I think he also wants to teach others, particularly kids in school, how to do that.”

His greatest assets: “He’s got a brilliant engineering mind but more so than that — there are a lot of brilliant engineers — but he is a leader, He learned that in the Navy. He leads companies like one would lead troops into battle, he leads a company like he led a destroyer group in World War II. A lot of people today are managers, they are not leaders. The guy’s phenomenal ­— he comes to work here at least three or four days a week. At 85 years old he has an energy that some 25 years old would find exhausting..”

The best part about working with him:  “The biggest thing for me is the business advice on how to run a startup company. If you jump out of an airplane with Bernie there is no fear because he knows how to build a parachute on the way down. Bernie is like a father to me. I think the world of the guy.”

If he was doing something else: “Nothing, other than if the Navy called him back. The Citadel has just made him an honorary member of the South Carolina militia. At a moment’s notice he would go serve his country.”