Gene Haas

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Gene Francis Haas (born November, 1952) is founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, Inc. (one of the world's leading CNC machine tool manufacturers). Additionally, he is the owner of a NASCAR team; Haas CNC Racing.

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[edit] Entrepreneurial activities

Haas graduated from California State University Northridge in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance. Instead of pursuing a carrer related to his major he opened Pro-turn Engineering, a small machine shop with two employees; Tony Cortez and Abel Bugarian. In 1980 Gene noticed that it took Abel too long to manually operate the dividing plate on a 5C collet manual indexer. Gene got the idea of adding a stepper motor drive to the indexer. The function of the motor was to position the machining angle after the operator unclamped the collet and pressed a button connected to a controller box. After seeing the positive reaction of attendees at the 1983 WESTEC (an industry expo) to his indexer, he decided to form a new company, Haas Automation, to mass produce them. His first commercial product, the HBI-5C (Haas Brothers Indexer), sold well because it was not much more expensive than its manual counterpart. In 1986, Haas and a partner were awarded a U.S. Patent for their invention. [1] Later, in 1988, Haas branched out into the production of a fully enclosed CNC machining center priced under $50,000. This machine tool became extremely popular due to its price and in-house designed control which was much more operator-friendly than the current standard. Over the course of about twenty years, Haas Automation as grown from the station wagon Mr. Haas sold his first products from, to its current 1-million square foot headquarters/factory in Oxnard, California. Haas Automation is now the largest machine tool manufacturer in the United States. [2]

[edit] Racing

Haas Automation has been involved with auto racing since 1995. The company formed technical partnerships with race teams in CART, Indy Racing League, and NASCAR.

Gene Haas personally competed in the 2001 Best of the Desert Off-Road Truck Series and won the class championship together with co-driver Joe Custer.

[edit] Haas CNC Racing

for the main article, see Haas CNC Racing.
Haas CNC Racing fields the NEXTEL Cup Series with No. 66 Best Buy Chevrolet driven by Jeff Green, and the Busch Series with No. 00 Yellow Chevrolet driven by Johnny Sauter.

[edit] Philanthropic activities

Mr. Haas has used his position as a successful businessman to share with the local community. Haas Automation and Gene 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] Arrest

On the morning of June 19, 2006, Gene Haas was arrested by IRS agents for investigation of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy. The case is complicated and involves other companies and former Haas Automation employees. Through an official statement, Haas Automation maintains that its founder is "innocent of any and all charges", and the "IRS issues revolve around the activities of a former Haas Automation employee". [6] [7]

Local officials have come to his defense and praise his contributions to the community (Ventura County Star Article). [8]

[edit] Arrest related updates

June 23, 2006: The judge in Haas' detention hearing agreed to release him from federal custody, dismissing the prosecution's suggestion that he poses a more than average flight risk and should be detained until trial.

June 26, 2006: Haas pleads not guilty in federal court. Trial may start in August. [9]

July 13, 2006: One of the two counts of witness intimidation in the indictment of Haas has been dropped. The Department of Justice asked for the dismissal because paperwork was filed after the statute of limitation expired.

July 21, 2006: The criminal trial of Haas has been scheduled to open August 15, 2006 in Los Angeles, California.

August 8, 2006: The trial has been rescheduled to open January 27, 2007 in Los Angeles.

November 8, 2006: At Haas' request, his trial date has been moved to September 18, 2007.


[edit] External links

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