This profile on LA Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein ran on Jan. 3, 2005, soon after he had retired as vice chairman of DirecTV Group.
A full dish - Executive made DirecTV the largest satellite provider in the U.S.
While attending Alhambra High School, Eddy Hartenstein embraced an ambitious, yet vague, vision of his future.With the space race with the Soviet Union capturing the imagination of millions of young people, Hartenstein wanted to go into "something cutting edge, high tech."
Now 54 and newly retired as vice chairman of El Segundo-based DirecTV Group, Hartenstein leaves a legacy that is anything but vague.
He built DirecTV from an idea into the nation's biggest satellite television provider and second-largest pay television service, with more than 13.5 million customers.
"I want to experience what it feels like to not get up with an alarm clock and not have to be somewhere that morning," Hartenstein said recently during an interview in his office, where he was still packing away memories.
With white hair and a white beard framing a paternal smile, the bespectacled Hartenstein looks every bit the college professor. Yet his career has been less academic theorizing and more risk-taking business action.
During the interview, he mused about his career, the rise of satellite TV and the intersection of engineering and entertainment.
"It's been a wonderful ride," he said.
Hartenstein joined Hughes Aircraft Co. in June 1972 after graduating with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and math from Cal Poly Pomona. He worked at DirecTV while studying for his graduate degree in applied physics at Caltech.
He went from working on making satellites to heading a company that would help make the high-tech devices a household word.
When Hughes created DirecTV in 1990, Hartenstein headed the new company. Eventually, Hughes sold its aerospace and satellite manufacturing operations, and DirecTV became the centerpiece of Hughes.
Hughes went from having a handful of giant corporate clients to millions of consumer-level customers, in the process dodging a devastating slump in the satellite manufacturing industry.
"We did something that was somewhat audacious," Hartenstein said. "We have done a very successful transformation from a provider of satellites to other major corporations to a provider of TV entertainment to literally millions of customers across the nation."
Hartenstein not only helped changed Hughes, but transformed the pay-TV industry.
"He's the father of U.S.-based direct-to-home satellite TV on a mass scale," said Jim Schaeffler, senior analyst at The Carmel Group.
With new technologies and an emphasis on customer service, the upstart DirecTV gave the more conventional cable companies a run for their money and customers.
"We're the ones that made the digital in television," Hartenstein boasted. "We're the ones who spurred the whole industry to go into offering multiple-hundreds of channels. The cable industry wouldn't have done that on its own. We offered competition."
Hartenstein said his greatest asset as an executive was his ability to bring people who are "a whole lot smarter and brighter than I am, and simply creating an environment for them to do what they did best." This involved finding professionals from diverse backgrounds who were compatible with each other.
Some lessons he learned during his years at DirecTV include:
* Go with your gut; don't over-analyze.
* Promote debate, and don't surround yourself with people inclined to say what they think you want them to say.
* Once you've made a decision, get everyone on board. Yet be prepared to alter your decision as new facts arise.
* Make technology intuitive to the user. "If you have to send someone to pick through the cupboard to find the instruction manual, you've lost."
With such a trail-blazing career, Hartenstein is sure to have regrets. But his biggest regret is mostly personal.
"If I had to do it all over again, I would have tried to be more balanced and spend more time with family and good friends," he said.
The Thousand Oaks resident has a wife and two young boys. He declined to discuss his family, saying he wants to protect their privacy.
As for the future, Hartenstein notes that he doesn't fish or golf.
He plans to catch up on reading and do a "a little volunteer work here and there." He wants to encourage music and art instruction in schools. "Getting music and art back into the curriculum will only make people richer," said Hartenstein , who played woodwind instruments through elementary and high school.
"I have a sense and I don't know what it is," he said of his retirement plans. "But when I see it, I'll know it."
Hartenstein leaves DirecTV in a less influential position than when he started. After international media giant News Corp. purchased a controlling stake in DirecTV in December 2003, Hartenstein lost his position as chairman and CEO, ending up as vice chairman.
Hartenstein remained based in El Segundo, even as the company's center of gravity shifted to New York, where the top DirecTV executives are now based in order to be closer to their News Corp. counterparts.
"He's leaving because it's not his child anymore," said analyst Schaeffler. "It's gone through its adolescence and it belongs to somebody else now. So his ability to make the kinds of decisions he's always made has been greatly reduced. A guy with that much talent, he's like a horse that's waiting to get out of the gate. And under the existing News Corp. management, that horse isn't allowed to run."
Schaeffler, who has followed Hartenstein 's career for years, says the satellite TV icon will likely move on to another media project. "There's another DirecTV for Eddie Harten-stein to create," Schaeffler said. "Do not bet on him going into retirement and only doing charitable acts. He's too valuable a commodity."Business livesBusiness lives
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