Richard Herman's Blog

 My co-author Robert Smith and I enjoy following the adventures of the characters we profiled in Immigrant Inc., pioneers like Farouk Shami, the Palestinian immigrant who transformed the American hair-care industry with his innovative products.

Shami recently made good on his vow in Chapter 3 to run for governor of Texas. He came in a distant second in the state’s Democratic primary March 2, which did not surprise seasoned observers of the Lonestar State.

Shami is 67, a political novice and an Arab American. Texas voters had never seen anything like him.

“I don’t care if he’s raising people from the dead; a man named Farouk Shami is not going to be elected anything in Texas,” Dick
Reavis, a journalism professor at North Carolina State University and a native Texan, told the Houston Chronicle.

Even Jay Leno weighed in on the primary, mistaking Shami as a Pakistani.

“In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Texas voters overwhelmingly nominated former Houston Mayor Bill White over Pakistani-born businessman Farouk Shami,” Leno deadpanned on NBC’s The Jay Leno Show. “Who could have seen that coming? Imagine Texans choosing a white guy named white over a Pakistani born businessman named Farouk Shami. It’s like the world is upside down.”

The slights did nothing to dim Shami’s trademark optimism.

 “Although this wasn’t the outcome we’d hoped for, do not get discouraged,” Shami said in a statement posted on his website (www.faroukforgovernor.com). “A defeat is only a defeat if you let it stop you. I will not let today’s results stop me.

 “Thank you again for your support. It means the world to me, more than I can ever express in words.”

Born in the West Bank, Shami immigrated to the United States in 1965 and became a trendsetting hairdresser and inventor. He founded Farouk Systems Inc. in his garage, using knowledge of natural dyes that he brought from Palestine. Today, his company sells its BioSilk shampoos and SunGlitz hair-care products in more than 100 nations of the world. Shami also invented the CHI, the favorite flat-iron and hair straightener among professional stylists.

If Texans did not want to vote for Shami, they don’t mind working for him. He employs about 2,500 people in the United States, including about 600 in Houston. More are coming as part of his “American made” strategy praised by political and union leaders.

Shami recently closed one of his factories in South Korea and has curtailed his manufacturing in China as part of a plan to move more than 1,000 jobs to America. He’s encouraging other American manufacturers to make a similar job commitment to “the greatest country in the world.”

He may have lost his first election, but Shami already proved he knows how to win.

After super-charging A123, Fulop makes his exit

Another one of our favorite characters is Ric Fulop, a young immigrant who helped to launch A123Systems in 2001 and revolutionize the American battery industry.

 Now Fulop, who opens Chapter 1, is taking a bow. The serial entrepreneur announced recently that he is leaving A123 to spend more time with his young family. While the reasoning sounds cliché, with Ric it’s probably true. His wife is expecting their second child and, because of the frenetic pace of his work, he missed out on a lot the first time around.

He said he intends to be a full-time dad and to share his knowledge of start-ups through public speaking and writing.

The entrepreneur from Venezuela is a restless visionary. Probably few expected him to sit still in Boston for as long as he has. A123 is his fifth start-up. What began with Ric, Yet-Ming Chiang and Bart Riley over dinner at the Naked Fish in Framingham is now a worldwide company with corporate offices and a cubicle class. Not Ric Fulop’s kind of setting.

“As an entrepreneur to my core, our success is a dream come true,” he said in a Feb. 5 resignation letter posted on the company’s website (www.a123systems.com).
We suspect we’ll be hearing news of Ric Fulop again, soon after he launches his next audacious venture.

Tags: a123, biosilk, farouk shami, ric fulop

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 2:49 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.