Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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Tombrello–94 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO SESSION 5 December 27, 2010 TOMBRELLO: OK. We’ve gotten down to the point at which I’ve left Caltech for Schlumberger research lab, and we talked yesterday about some of the underpinnings of that, the preamble to that. As I said then, I had been a consultant there since ’81. By 1986 the lab had been cut back dramatically. But they had a lot of people and projects still rattling around, and so they brought me in on a two-year contract to see if I could straighten it out. ASPATURIAN: So you took a leave of absence from Caltech? TOMBRELLO: I took a leave of absence. Yes, perhaps a little bit about the negotiations for it. ASPATURIAN: Sure. TOMBRELLO: The person who recruited me had become Schlumberger chairman at the end of 1986, so he was a new boy, too. But he had been with the company quite a while. His name was Euan Baird. I met him in ’81; I was having dinner with three people and realized that maybe one of them, or more than one, would be chairman of the corporation. One of them—Michel Vaillaud—did become chairman and lasted a year, because he couldn’t get rid of Fairchild Semiconductor, which they had bought after the people who founded it had moved on to found their own little company, which they called Intel. I had advised against buying it; I said they’d lose $400 million, because that was the purchase price—and, well, I made a mistake. They lost $2.5 billion before they realized they were not made to run a semiconductor company. So they bought a distressed property, shall we say, and then ran it into the ground. But, anyway, Baird got to be chairman after one year of Vaillaud, and he and I had met once to talk about how the lab was doing. We met at the Union Club in New York. He wanted me to be candid about the director they had brought in from Exxon. I was slightly less candid than usual, but basically I said, “The guy’s not doing a very good job, and the people don’t respect him.” He http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
Tombrello–95 wouldn’t have asked me to come and meet with him if he hadn’t already made the same decision. It was just putting a dot over the “i.” Euan’s a very bright man. When he became chairman, he said something that people should have taken more seriously, which was, “If I’m still in this job in ten years, you people have made a dreadful mistake.” He stayed in the job fifteen years, and he bought his own version of Fairchild and lost probably $5 billion. Being in a job too long—and I’m speaking for term limits here, because they exist for the reason that when you’re in a big job for a long time, you’re cut off from your sources of real information. People don’t tell you the truth anymore, and if they do, you don’t like hearing it and you don’t believe it. Euan was absolutely right, except when his time came, after ten years, he still thought he had more time going. But anyway, I was given a chance to go there, and I was negotiating. I flew up to Palo Alto, because Michel Guilloud, who had run the lab when I first started consulting there, was staying up there for something or other. Baird came in and we met to talk about the details of running the lab. They wanted to cut the lab’s funding back. In 1985, 1986, they had been spending probably $42 million a year on it. He said, “I suppose you have an idea of what you want for a budget.” I said, “Euan, I’ll tell you something. I will make you an offer you can’t refuse. You will tell me how much you’re willing to spend to run research. And then I will tell you what I can give you for that much money.” I said, “That’s the best I can do. You probably have an idea in your mind about how much you want to spend, and then I will tell you what I can do with it. However, when we agree on a number, it is absolutely fixed. You cannot start playing around with the number. After six months you cannot tell me, “Oh, I’d like to cut you back some more.” He says, “Oh, this is the most refreshing thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s a pleasure to do business with you.” I said, “Keep in mind there’s a caveat. You can’t play with the number. You get to choose it—it’s your number—but then it’s my money.” And I said, “I’m not going to try to do this in a vacuum. You’ve been in this field longer than I have. You and I will negotiate on what the mix of projects will be and that kind of thing. We are going to make sure we agree on what we do, but we’re not going to change the money.” And so he says, “$30 million.” ASPATURIAN: Just like that? http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
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THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO (b. 1936) INTER
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Contact information Archives, Calif
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NOTE TO READERS Per agreement betwe
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Tombrello-iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTE
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Tombrello-vi Session 4 68-72 Colleg
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Tombrello-viii his presidency. Tomb
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Tombrello-x 206-213 Establishes (wi
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CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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Tombrello-3 TOMBRELLO: Bisacquino.
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Tombrello-5 TOMBRELLO: This proceed
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Tombrello-7 Memphis, and I believe
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Tombrello-9 otherwise, we mostly we
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Tombrello-11 of the ability of the
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Tombrello-13 truly bigger than life
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Tombrello-15 I associated with the
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Tombrello-17 they’re probably rig
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Tombrello-19 ASPATURIAN: Your thesi
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Tombrello-21 wonderful time. And yo
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Tombrello-23 TOMBRELLO: Let me go o
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Tombrello-25 ASPATURIAN: When you s
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Tombrello-27 We did that again in t
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Tombrello-29 funding our research t
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Tombrello-31 from the NSF grant, bu
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Tombrello-33 doing great stuff, bec
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Tombrello-35 TOMBRELLO: I wasn’t
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Tombrello-37 [Morrisroe Professor o
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Tombrello-39 clearly willing to pay
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Tombrello-41 my teaching assignment
Page 57 and 58: Tombrello-43 ASPATURIAN: No. TOMBRE
Page 59 and 60: Tombrello-45 Charlie, that’s numb
Page 61 and 62: Tombrello-47 heavy ions. Jancaitis
Page 63 and 64: Tombrello-49 because, no surprise,
Page 65 and 66: Tombrello-51 of a wreck somewhere.
Page 67 and 68: Tombrello-53 concurrent computers,
Page 69 and 70: Tombrello-55 your green card.” He
Page 71 and 72: Tombrello-57 USC. She said, “My n
Page 73 and 74: Tombrello-59 video of it. Brian was
Page 75 and 76: Tombrello-61 ASPATURIAN: Without th
Page 77 and 78: Tombrello-63 ASPATURIAN: Consciousn
Page 79 and 80: Tombrello-65 Stone reported this co
Page 81 and 82: Tombrello-67 says, “That is so im
Page 83 and 84: Tombrello-69 basement was where I l
Page 85 and 86: Tombrello-71 Graaff generators] at
Page 87 and 88: Tombrello-73 groups at Chicago, and
Page 89 and 90: Tombrello-75 TOMBRELLO: I think it
Page 91 and 92: Tombrello-77 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I reme
Page 93 and 94: Tombrello-79 TOMBRELLO: Well, it wa
Page 95 and 96: Tombrello-81 were made up of these
Page 97 and 98: Tombrello-83 TOMBRELLO: It had a re
Page 99 and 100: Tombrello-85 ASPATURIAN: It wasn’
Page 101 and 102: Tombrello-87 Remington bronzes but
Page 103 and 104: Tombrello-89 He’d done all kinds
Page 105 and 106: Tombrello-91 side, with totally ira
Page 107: Tombrello-93 TOMBRELLO: Yes. It too
Page 111 and 112: Tombrello-97 U.S. independent of fo
Page 113 and 114: Tombrello-99 own operating people a
Page 115 and 116: Tombrello-101 particularly in compa
Page 117 and 118: Tombrello-103 Six months later, “
Page 119 and 120: Tombrello-105 necessary—that was
Page 121 and 122: Tombrello-107 make things harder. A
Page 123 and 124: Tombrello-109 TOMBRELLO: It really
Page 125 and 126: Tombrello-111 it. It was clearly an
Page 127 and 128: Tombrello-113 little bit—he had h
Page 129 and 130: Tombrello-115 protons, you didn’t
Page 131 and 132: Tombrello-117 Did she have an affai
Page 133 and 134: Tombrello-119 questions. But Murray
Page 135 and 136: Tombrello-121 marvelous teacher—h
Page 137 and 138: Tombrello-123 ASPATURIAN: What I ha
Page 139 and 140: Tombrello-125 ASPATURIAN: That woul
Page 141 and 142: Tombrello-127 and all sorts of thin
Page 143 and 144: Tombrello-129 ASPATURIAN: Someone e
Page 145 and 146: Tombrello-131 DuBridge interpreted
Page 147 and 148: Tombrello-133 sciences. They were g
Page 149 and 150: Tombrello-135 candidates came and g
Page 151 and 152: Tombrello-137 TOMBRELLO: I don’t
Page 153 and 154: Tombrello-139 TOMBRELLO: Yes. But I
Page 155 and 156: Tombrello-141 opposite sides. But h
Page 157 and 158: Tombrello-143 ASPATURIAN: Now, was
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Tombrello-145 ASPATURIAN: Really? T
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Tombrello-147 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I’d
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Tombrello-149 I believe he had a vi
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Tombrello-151 to predict something
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Tombrello-175 And then in the summe
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Tombrello-177 think you need that c
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Tombrello-179 nuclear counterterror
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Tombrello-181 spoiled by that. The
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Tombrello-183 particularly the weap
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Tombrello-185 set up to prevent wea
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Tombrello-187 with those that alrea
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Tombrello-189 powered by solar. The
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Tombrello-191 TOMBRELLO: I know. I
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Tombrello-193 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
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Tombrello-195 discretionary $19,000
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Tombrello-197 Lange is PMA chairman
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Tombrello-199 Witten’s here, Zewa
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Tombrello-201 There were many thing
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Tombrello-203 the key—the hallmar
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Tombrello-205 TOMBRELLO: Not exactl
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Tombrello-207 pieces of hardware th
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Tombrello-209 TOMBRELLO: It’s nic
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Tombrello-211 Wendy, until well int
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Tombrello-213 realized it was a wor
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Tombrello-215 you try for. But you
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Tombrello-217 TOMBRELLO: He did not
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Tombrello-219 ASPATURIAN: Just a re
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Tombrello-221 ASPATURIAN: How do yo
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Tombrello-223 He’s not dumb. OK.
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Tombrello-225 ASPATURIAN: And incre
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Tombrello-227 could control him. We
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Tombrello-233 down to the late stag
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Tombrello-235 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
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Tombrello-237 the tandem laboratory
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Tombrello-239 picked Motorola’s 6
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Tombrello-241 ASPATURIAN: How did y
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Tombrello-243 town, staying in a ve
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Tombrello-245 TOMBRELLO: Somebody v
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Tombrello-247 years before, I’d s
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Tombrello-249 as good as you can im
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Tombrello-251 Los Alamos is a wonde
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Tombrello-253 TOMBRELLO: No. I thin
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Tombrello-255 navy, done the submar
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Tombrello-257 TOMBRELLO: —had don
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Tombrello-259 interesting people wh
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Tombrello-261 putting up a substant
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Tombrello-263 TOMBRELLO: I think so
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Tombrello-265 TOMBRELLO: There were
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Tombrello-267 at that, just to see
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Tombrello-269 ASPATURIAN: Is he ori
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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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