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Ed Zschau
American management consultant and politician

Edwin Van Wyck Zschau is an American educator who represented California's 12th District in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1987. In 1986 he ran as the Republican candidate for a seat in the United States Senate. He prevailed in a crowded Republican primary that included, among others, conservative commentator Bruce Herschensohn, Los Angeles County supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and Congresswoman Bobbi Fiedler, but then lost to incumbent Democrat Alan Cranston by a narrow margin.

Zschau briefly re-entered the political arena as the vice presidential running mate to former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm, a Democrat, who challenged Ross Perot for the Reform Party presidential nomination in 1996.

On May 26, 2019, Dr. Zschau became the Interim President of Sierra Nevada College, a role he held until the appointment of his successor the following year.

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Biography

Zschau was born in Omaha, Nebraska and was a figure skating champion in his teenage years.7

Zschau graduated cum laude with an A.B. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1961 after completing a senior thesis titled "Space Time and Geometry from Kant to Einstein."8 He also holds M.B.A., M.S. (statistics), and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University.9

During the 1960s, Zschau was for five years an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching courses in computer systems, management science, and business policy. In 1967–68 he was a visiting assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, where he taught the required first year MBA course in managerial economics.

In 1968 Zschau founded a computer company, System Industries.10 One of his collaborators in founding this company was Henry B. Eyring.11 Zschau served as CEO of System Industries from 1968 to 1981.

In 1987 Zschau became a general partner of Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, and in 1988, he was elected chairman and CEO of Censtor Corp., a company which had been founded by Brentwood to develop advanced magnetic recording components for disk drives. He was recruited to be chairman and CEO of Adstar, the IBM Storage Systems Division, in 1993.12

Zschau is also the founding chairman, emeritus, and a member of the National Advisory Board of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, is on the board of scholars of the ACCF Center for Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and is a fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology. He serves as chairman of the board of NanoOpto Corporation, Princeton Power Systems, and StarTek, Inc.13 (NYSE), President of Polyera Corporation, as a director of The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (NYSE), and Washington Live, Inc.

Zschau is currently a visiting lecturer with rank of professor at Princeton University in the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and in the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. Prior to his current post at Princeton, from 1997 to 2000, he was professor of management at the Harvard Business School and a visiting professor at Princeton University. During his years at Princeton, Zschau was a professor and mentor to Tim Ferriss.14 In the summer of 2019, Zschau accepted a pro bono position as Interim President of Sierra Nevada University, in Incline Village, Nevada.1516

Personal life

Zschau and his wife, Jo, currently reside in Nantucket, Massachusetts and Los Altos, California. They have one son and two daughters.

Zschau is skilled in playing the ukulele and was known to some as the "singing congressman".17

Electoral history

1982 United States House of Representatives elections18
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanEd Zschau 115,365 63.0%
DemocraticEmmett Lynch61,37233.5%
LibertarianWilliam C. "Bill" White6,4713.5%
Total votes183,208 100.0%
Turnout 
Republican hold
1984 United States House of Representatives elections19
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanEd Zschau (Incumbent) 155,795 61.7%
DemocraticMartin Carnoy91,02636.0%
LibertarianWilliam C. "Bill" White5,8722.3%
Total votes252,963 100.0%
Turnout 
Republican hold
1986 Republican Senate primary20
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanEd Zschau 737,384 37.12%
RepublicanBruce Herschensohn587,85229.59%
RepublicanMichael D. Antonovich180,0109.06%
RepublicanBobbi Fiedler143,0327.20%
RepublicanEdward M. Davis130,3096.56%
RepublicanRobert W. Naylor60,8203.06%
RepublicanArt Laffer47,2882.38%
RepublicanJoe Knowland35,9871.81%
RepublicanEldridge Cleaver23,5121.17%
RepublicanGeorge Montgomery16,3740.82%
RepublicanWilliam B. Allen12,9900.65%
RepublicanWilliam H. Pemberton6,6980.34%
RepublicanJohn W. Spring4,4780.23%
Total votes1,986,374 100.00%
1986 California U.S. Senate election21
PartyCandidateVotes%
DemocraticAlan Cranston (incumbent) 3,646,672 49.29%
RepublicanEd Zschau3,541,80447.87%
American IndependentEdward B. Vallen109,9161.49%
LibertarianBreck McKinley66,2610.90%
Peace and FreedomPaul Kangas33,8690.46%
Democratic hold
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References

  1. "New System Industries Chief". The New York Times. February 18, 1987. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/18/business/new-system-industries-chief.html ↩

  2. Kane, William D. (December 18, 1982). "Zschau, McCloskey set Stanislaus talking tour". The Modesto Bee. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UFMuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H9gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2129,1036628&dq=ed-zschau&hl=en ↩

  3. Chance, Amy (November 10, 1990). "Zschau not interested in Senate appointment". Lodi News-Sentinel. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I4AzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KjIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=5857,1151253&dq=ed-zschau&hl=en ↩

  4. "The Reform Party hopeful chooses former California Rep. Ed Zschau". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. AP. August 6, 1996. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EG8fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=A30EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4985,12819&dq=ed-zschau&hl=en ↩

  5. Atam Lalchandani. "CHAIRMAN LALCHANDANI ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT OF SNC TAHOE PRESIDENT". https://www.sierranevada.edu/chairman-letter ↩

  6. "A New President for Sierra Nevada University". Sierra Nevada University (Press release). September 1, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2020. https://www.sierranevada.edu/a-new-president-for-sierra-nevada-university/ ↩

  7. O'Mara, Margaret Pugh (2019). The Code : Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. New York. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-399-56218-1. OCLC 1057306457.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) 978-0-399-56218-1 ↩

  8. Zschau, Edwin Van Wyck (1961). Space Time and Geometry from Kant to Einstein (Thesis). Princeton University. http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01rr171z276 ↩

  9. Leonard Sloane (February 18, 1982). "System Industries Names New Chief". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/18/business/business-people-system-industries-names-new-chief.html ↩

  10. Leonard Sloane (February 18, 1982). "System Industries Names New Chief". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/18/business/business-people-system-industries-names-new-chief.html ↩

  11. Robert I. Eaton and Henry J. Eyring, I Will Lead You Along: The Life of Henry B. Eyring. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013. p. 112 ↩

  12. Fisher, Lawrence (April 24, 1993). "I.B.M. Gives Adstar Storage Unit More Autonomy". The New York Times. https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FC3A5A0C778EDDAD0894DB494D81 ↩

  13. "Harvey A. Wagner Joins StarTek Board of Directors". Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20120302105148/http://www.smartbrief.com/news/aaaa/industryBW-detail.jsp?id=6A8D3B76-9499-4430-8CED-C6A75E657DB4 ↩

  14. "Author and Podcaster: Tim Ferriss : How I Built This with Guy Raz". NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/18/948108821/author-and-podcaster-tim-ferriss ↩

  15. "Announcing Sierra Nevada University". Prweb. Retrieved February 14, 2020. https://www.prweb.com/releases/announcing_sierra_nevada_university_sierra_nevada_college_updates_its_name_to_reflect_half_a_century_of_growth/prweb16862470.htm ↩

  16. Ferriss, Tim (August 2, 2019). "The Polymath Professor Who Changed My Life". The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss. Retrieved February 14, 2020. https://tim.blog/2019/08/01/ed-zschau ↩

  17. Eaton and Eyring, I Will Lead You Along, p. 112 ↩

  18. "1982 election results" (PDF). http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1982election.pdf ↩

  19. "1984 election results" (PDF). http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1984election.pdf ↩

  20. "Our Campaigns - CA US Senate - R Primary Race - Jun 03, 1986". http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=95277 ↩

  21. "Our Campaigns - CA US Senate Race - Nov 04, 1986". http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3657 ↩