Kaypro Leadership

Andy Kay

"I've met people in my career who would have called the 22-year-old high school graduate in there, blamed him, pinned him, you know, tore him a new one. Andy was just even-keeled, very thoughtful, gave each person equal credence, and went about solving the problem. And so, you know, I had a lot of respect for Andy Kay."
(Interview with Marshall Mosley)

David Kay

The Kaypro Corporation, the California computer maker, said yesterday that its founder, Andrew F. Kay, would step down as president and be replaced by his son David.

The elder Mr. Kay, 65 years old, will remain chairman of the company, which he founded in 1952. But analysts said the promotion of David A. Kay, who has been Kaypro's vice president for marketing and product development and was instrumental in its move into computers, formalizes his active management role at a time when the company is battling a sales slump and is also facing losses brought on by inventory problems.

"I've been really involved in a lot of the operations previous to this time, and this really kind of makes it official," said David Kay in a telephone interview. "My father is feeling he'd like to work more on the overall picture than in the day-to-day operations he's been so intimately involved with."

Although the company does not use the title of chief executive, Mr. Kay, 40, said his father would continue to fill that function for the time being.

Kaypro also promoted John J. Hentrich, 35, its vice president for finance and its general counsel, to the new post of executive vice president. In that role he will continue to be responsible for financial matters, but will also assume some operating responsibilities, Mr. Kay said.

Since the strong success of its early portable computer, the Kaypro II, in 1982, the company has faced problems as its sales sagged in the hotly competitive microcomputer market. It has had difficulties in introducing a new line of machines compatible with computers made by the International Business Machines Corporation.

In addition, Kaypro has had to take charges related to missing or obsolete inventories, and for the nine months ended May 31, it reported a loss of $6.1 million in contrast to net income of $10 million in the period a year earlier. Sales dropped to $60.6 million, from $97.3 million, and the company has said it expected to report a loss for its fiscal year ended in August.

But Mr. Kay, who joined the company in 1980 after a career as a contractor, said he was confident that Kaypro's new I.B.M.-compatible machines would be a success.

Mr. Kay, a graduate of the University of California at San Diego with a degree in mathematics, is married and has three children.
(New York Times, October 15, 1985)

"Kaypro Corp., Solana Beach, Calif., a manufacturer and marketer of portable computers, said David Kay, the son of its chairman, Andrew Kay, had resigned as president and director."
(New York Times, October 5, 1988)

David Kay is returning to the fold as president and chief executive of the Kaypro Corporation, the computer company founded and run by his father, Andrew Kay.

Kaypro, based in Solana Beach, Calif., made a name for itself in the early 1980's with portable computers, but the company was late in introducing I.B.M.-compatible models and never regained its stature. Kaypro, which had sales of $120 million in 1984, had sales of only about $20 million through the first three quarters of this year.

"The company has to prove itself again," said Stewart Alsop, editor of PC Letter, a trade journal. "David Kay has a pretty good reputation. The fact that he is returning is interesting, but it doesn't make Kaypro something worth paying attention to."
(New York Times, February 7, 1990)

David Kay, the son of the founder of the Kaypro Corporation, has resigned as the company's president, less than a month after taking the job.

It is the second time Mr. Kay has departed from the computer company in the last two years. In 1988, he resigned after disagreeing with his father, Andrew Kay, over the future of the troubled company.

"I have spent the past three weeks analyzing Kaypro's current financial and industry position," David Kay, 44 years old, said in a statement today.

"It is my recommendation that the company assemble a new management team, one with a proven track record in financial and administrative restructuring." He did not return telephone calls for further comment. (New York Times, February 21, 1990)

"Kaypro Corp., Solana Beach, Calif., a computer company, named Mark A. Seaver vice president of operations."
(New York Times, February 28, 1990)

The Kaypro Corporation, which is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said its founder, Andrew F. Kay, had received court permission to add a fifth, friendly member to the computer maker's board. The company said that after regaining control of Kaypro's operations, Mr. Kay ousted Roy Y. Salisbury as president and chief executive.

Mr. Salisbury, a management consultant, joined Kaypro in March to try to turn around the company, based in Solana Beach, Calif. Mr. Salisbury and Mr. Kay had battled over Kaypro's direction.

The company added that it had named Ben Fisher, a longtime employee, as president and chief executive. Mr. Salisbury and four associates have been removed.
(New York Times, June 22, 1990)

Now, the man brought in to turn around the company has been dismissed by Andrew F. Kay, Kaypro's 71-year-old chairman, who has reasserted control over the company he founded. Mr. Kay says he can restore the company's old luster. But it will be hard to return Kaypro to even a shadow of its former self. ...

Add to these problems an internecine struggle for control between Mr. Kay, whose family owns 70 percent of Kaypro, and Roy Y. Salisbury, a consultant hired as president and chief executive in March to turn the company around.

Serious Disagreements

Instead of cooperating on a reorganization plan, Mr. Kay and Mr. Salisbury bickered, disagreeing on strategy and exchanging charges of mismanagement and fraud. After two months, Mr. Kay went to court to win back control.

Two weeks ago, over Mr. Salisbury's objections, a bankruptcy court in San Diego granted Mr. Kay permission to add a fifth member to the company's board. The board had been evenly split, with Mr. Kay and his wife, Mary, on one side, and Mr. Salisbury and an associate on the other. Immediately after the court ruling, Mr. Kay selected the deciding member and gained control of the board. His next action was to remove Mr. Salisbury from management.

"He was running the company into the ground," Mr. Kay said. "In May, deliveries were worse than in our first month in 1982. When he came, I didn't realize he could be in a position to take complete control."

Dispute Over Manufacturing

Mr. Salisbury, who has left the company, disagreed. In one of his biggest disagreements with Mr. Kay, he had pushed for Kaypro to abandon costly manufacturing and concentrate on marketing computers made by other companies under the Kaypro name, which remains widely recognized. Mr. Kay, an engineer by training, wanted to remain a manufacturer. Mr. Salisbury said that without his business acumen and outside financing, the company would fail.

Back under Mr. Kay's control, Kaypro exudes optimism: The company says it has already begun computer production to fill a backlog of more than $500,000 in orders as well as new orders worth more than $1 million. Despite analysts' strong skepticism, Ben F. Fisher, the company's new president, says he expects Kaypro to return to profitability.
(New York Times, July 5, 1990)

The Kaypro Corporation's president and chief executive, Geoffrey W. Soule, resigned after trying for more than 15 months to revive the ailing computer firm, a company official said today.

Mr. Soule, who took charge of the firm in August 1990, and one of the company's four board members, Mark Seaver, both resigned last week, Andrew Kay, Kaypro chairman, said. The company has not officially announced the changes yet, but Mr. Kay confirmed Monday that the two had resigned last Wednesday, effective the same day.

Mr. Kay gave few reasons for the resignations but said Mr. Soule will continue working as vice president of marketing for Kaypro, which is operating under bankruptcy court protection.
(New York Times, December 4, 1991)