Considered Opinions

Cesar

I met Cesar Vasquez around 1989 or 1990, just after he had left his Vice President position at Bank of America. He had held positions at The Bank ranging from International Auditor in Latin America and Asia, to Branch Manager at a local branch in Sunnyvale.  At one stage he was responsible for “banking” virtually every fast-moving high-tech company in Silicon Valley, along with their senior management individuals – including leasing their private aircraft. He became a licensed private pilot just so he could understand fully that aspect of the business.

Cesar had struck out on his own to do independent M&A^[i]Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a general term that describes the consolidation of companies or assets through various types of financial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, tender offers, purchase of assets, and management acquisitions. work in a market that was exploding with technology start-ups. At the same time, I had just left my position, running the North American Optoelectronics business for Siemens, the giant German conglomerate, to join an old friend as President, to help him “ripen” his Company for sale. Cesar had gotten wind of what we were doing and came in for an interview. We didn’t engage with him at that time, mostly because he was brand-new in the M&A business and ours would have been his first big deal.^[ii]We ended up selling Indala to Motorola for $50 million. The Company has been acquired and reacquired multiple times since then but the core 125-400 kHz proximity technology, developed by my friend Ted Geiszler, remains intact.

Even though we hadn’t chosen Cesar for that project, he and I stayed in touch, enjoying frequent lunches at his favorite Chinese restaurant in Willow Glen, where we solved all the World’s problems over spicy Taiwanese delicacies. A year or two later, when I decided to launch my WeedSeeker project, Cesar was of course my first contact.

The Siemens experience had taught me that I would be happier and my interests would be better served if I spent more time in the laboratory and less time in the Board Room, so my goal was to prove that my new technology idea would work by putting at least one product into the market – then sell the business to someone else to grow it.  At that stage, I had completely lost interest in managing factories, suppliers, unruly employees, and fickle customers.

When I had gotten the technology working, Cesar’s task would be to find the right buyer. At that time, the list of potential acquirers included Ford-New Holland, Kubota, FMC, John Deere, and a long list of smaller, more focused ag-material application companies. Much to my surprise, within weeks, Cesar had the top executives from every company on the list sitting across the table from me in the Patchen Barn. We danced with each of them but it quickly became clear that the right suitor was going to be John Deere. They came to California – we went to Iowa – we walked orchards and cornfields together – and, with guidance from Cesar, we soon had a contract to develop a product with the Deere name on it. A year or so later, we sold my Company to Deere.

For the next 25 years, I rarely spent or invested more than a few thousand dollars without consulting Cesar, and he never negotiated a deal without my review of the technology. We worked together, traveled together, and met often just to “catch up” as he always put it. Being of Mexican descent, his focus for much of that time was on Central America, working with Silicon Valley companies, like Intel, who were obsessed with acquiring software start-ups at the time. Three decades earlier, I had driven a Chevrolet Corvair from Indiana to Panama with my Panamanian fraternity brother, so I was all-in to travel with Cesar and learn more about those cultures.

Cesar and I covered a lot of territory together during those years, from Mexico’s Maquiladoras to the Panama canal but we always seemed to end up at Si Como No, on a tall cliff overlooking the Pacific, between Manuel Antonio and the fishing village of Quepos.

When I got word last year from his daughter that he had succumbed to a heart attack, I learned that he was diabetic – no doubt contributing to his heart condition. In all those years together, he had never shared that with me. Today, when I think of Cesar , I think of boating Lake Nicaragua , exploring the ruins at Tulum , the white knuckle private charter flight over the mountains to Lemon at tree-top level, the day we had to navigate around washed-out bridges at Tamarindo , surfing Jaco Beach with “Oso Grande”,^[iii]“Big Bear” is the name the locals gave Cesar’s wrestling buddy, Kevin, from his college days. pursuing the elusive Quetzal in Monte Verde rain forest or hiking the jungles of Golfito. But mostly I cherish the times we laughed and drank “Cuba Libres” on the veranda at Si Como No.

By: Jim
Written: June 2021
Published: August 2021
Revised:
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