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TMCNet: Boiseans Jack Lemley and Steve Hodges build lasting legacies [The Idaho Statesman, Boise]

[October 01, 2011]

Boiseans Jack Lemley and Steve Hodges build lasting legacies [The Idaho Statesman, Boise]

(Idaho Statesman (Boise) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 01--English Channel Tunnel chief executive Jack Lemley and Steve Hodges, a leader in sports, energy and information technology, have spent most of their lives developing innovative projects and products.


So what's left to achieve? "Somebody asked me this morning what's on my bucket list," Lemley said. "I said I've written it all off. I don't have a bucket list, there's nothing I can think of." Still, he keeps working.

Hodges says that since he sold his latest company, M2M, in January, his focus has shifted from creating companies to becoming an investor and mentor to start-ups -- and running in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.

"I've stepped in thousands of potholes, so I can help guys to not do the same," he said.

Lemley and Hodges will be inducted Oct. 26 into the Idaho Technology Council's Hall of Fame. The council was formed in 2010 by technology leaders to promote and nurture tech companies, especially those in information technology, agri-science and energy.

Both men spoke to the Statesman about life, business and lessons learned.

JACK LEMLEY At 76, Lemley still rides his bike from Downtown Boise to Lucky Peak or the fairgrounds and back for exercise. His wife won't let him ride down steep Table Rock Road anymore, he said, smiling.

In October, he'll travel to Turkey, where he's consulting on a new submerged light-rail system crossing the Bosphorus Strait. Among other projects at Lemley International at 604 N. 16th St., Boise, he's working with a gold mine in northern British Columbia and a tunnel highway in Seattle, and writing the story of his life.

"Everybody around here tells me I should retire, even my wife," he said. "I've said the words, 'I'm retired,' but for a retired person, I'm very busy." Lemley has managed major construction projects and companies in Boise and around the world. He was CEO of American Ecology Corp., now U.S. Ecology Inc., and executive vice president of Morrison Knudsen Corp. He built a city in Saudi Arabia and prevented a bloody conflict between the natives of Papua, New Guinea, and a mining company.

"I worked as a laborer on survey crews and always got along well with the people," he said. "I learned as much from a ditch digger as I did from my professors (at University of Idaho). I've proven I can manage 12,000 to 15,000 people in a project." He's proudest of managing construction of the Chunnel linking England and France, especially now.

"We finished it on time and on budget," he said. "And about six or eight months ago, I wrote to the contractors and said I'd like to have a letter of recommendation from you. Got the letter back, and it said, 'We were very pleased with the work that you did while you were here, but we're doubly pleased now,' because we had a 15-year warranty in their contract for everything connected with that tunnel and transport system, and we haven't had to pay one pound or one franc against that warranty. So I know that multibillion- dollar mega projects can be done with high levels of quality." Innate people skills and a buoyant attitude helped Lemley overcome challenges prompted by personalities, legalities and language barriers.

"A motto that he's always had for his family and their friends is don't be a cynic, don't be cynical," said Pamela Lemley, his wife of 28 years. "That is what he imparted to people. (And) he's such a good organizer and a good reader of people." Lemley often used the same people on various projects, she said. "He saw their potential more than they saw it in themselves. He knew they could succeed." Pamela Lemley believes her husband's legacy in Idaho will be his contributions to higher education. Jack Lemley was a trustee of the College of Idaho during one of its roughest financial patches and has been a supporter of the University of Idaho (from which he graduated in architecture in 1960) and Idaho State University.

In his spare time, he circumnavigated the globe in a 65-foot yacht with his wife and soared at supersonic speeds across the Treasure Valley in a fighter jet from Mountain Home.

Still, he said he's not as hands-on as he used to be.

"I don't have the energy, for one thing," he said. "I had a stroke five years ago or so. The only residual now is no fine motor skills in my right hand." Lemley was overseeing construction of the London 2012 Olympic venues when the stroke occurred while he was back in Boise for a visit.

He said nurses put alarms on his hospital bed because he kept trying to get up. After about 2? weeks of convalescence, he told Pamela he had to go back to work. Four days later, they were on a flight to London.

Lemley said he was unhappy before the stroke about the Olympic project because it seemed destined to come in late and over budget. But afterward, he said it became more difficult to finesse his way through difficult situations. He felt organizers weren't listening to him. He withdrew from the project and returned home to other work, like a multimillion-dollar contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to extend the No. 7 subway line in New York City.

Still, there was a lesson in the Olympic project for Lemley.

"I learned to be much less rigid in my thinking," he said.

So how does he want to be remembered? "I'm a builder who has always worked at the sharp end of the stick," he said. "I don't want to be known as some fantastic engineer. I'm not. But I am a builder who learned his lessons right in the mud, and I've been able to take those lessons and translate them into very successful projects like the channel tunnel." Sandra Forester: 377-6464 STEVE HODGES Steve Hodges was born and raised in Texas, and thought he'd never leave.

He served four years in the U.S. Air Force before graduating from the University of Texas with degrees in electrical engineering and business in 1978. He turned down offers from recruiters at big tech companies around the nation, preferring to stay in Texas. Then Hewlett-Packard came calling. Hodges was hired by HP in Boise as an electrical engineer.

"They were one of the best places you could work," said Hodges, 61. "It was difficult to get a job there." But the main draw? "At other tech companies, engineers were still wearing black ties and pants, with white shirts," Hodges said. "At HP, everyone was wearing sandals and shorts." The people at HP helped him grow into a serious engineer, Hodges said.

"I learned more at HP than I did at school," he said.

Boise and its active, outdoor lifestyle were big attractions, too. Hodges is a runner who competes in Ironman triathlons.

Hodges left HP in 1984 to found his first company, Computrol, an electronic products manufacturing company in Meridian that grew to employ 300 people.

"I love the rush of doing everything," he said. "It's a lot of fun, because as you grow, you delegate more and more things, and that sense of urgency goes away." With the sale of Computrol to Armstrong International for $15.5 million, Hodges could have moved anywhere. He spent the summer cruising around the country, checking out other areas. He stayed in Boise.

"There really are no downsides to being here, and there are lots of upsides," he said.

Four more tech start-ups followed.

It takes endurance and perseverance to be a serial entrepreneur, he said.

"It's a different mentality," Hodges said. "A lot of people live for different things -- fishing, church. To me, that work is what I was really into. It's something that I really enjoy." He also likes the control and freedom of being your own boss. But he said he's happiest being a doer, not a manager, which is what you become as your business grows.

"I've learned who I am," he said. "I'm a startup guy." He said some of the biggest mistakes he's made have been in hiring people who didn't fit with the company he was running at the time.

He's grateful for the core of people he took with him.

"I'm getting credit for starting these businesses, but I didn't do it alone," he said.

Joe Bowen, director of engineering at Hodges' last enterprise, M2M, said Hodges has been a mentor since they first worked together 18 years ago. M2M provides electronic remote monitoring and control products.

Bowen was employee No. 12 at Design Concepts International, Hodges' third start-up, and employee No. 1 at Telemetric, the fourth. Telemetric also provides electronic remote monitoring and control products.

"Steve's No. 1 philosophy was work hard, play hard," Bowen said. "The thing I got out of him was the concept of balance." Bowen said Hodges' companies were great places to work because he gave everyone more latitude than other managers and a sense of ownership.

Hodges has the ability to translate a problem into a solution, Bowen said.

"He asked the right questions," Bowen said. "If you were motivated, tuned in, tapped on, you had no problem getting along with him." Bowen and Hodges last worked together on M2M, founded with a little of Hodges' personal cash (about $200,000). Unlike Hodges' previous companies, no investor money was used to pay for growth.

"We knew what we wanted, and paid our way as we grew at a slow pace. It was our company, and we did it our way." Since leaving M2M in March, Hodges has traveled to Europe and Belize. He's been approached by a few entrepreneurs about investing.

His tips for start-ups include avoiding investment money if possible -- but if you must seek venture capital funds, understand them and how they work.

"Most say engineers can't run companies," he said.

Hodges says some engineers can do both: "Look at Dave (Packard) and Bill (Hewlett). Hewlett-Packard made out OK." So what's his greatest accomplishment? "We've always been good at creating jobs with good pay and places where people were happy to come to work." Sandra Forester: 377-6464 ___ (c)2011 The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho) Visit The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho) at www.idahostatesman.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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