Northern Nevada Business Weekly: Tell us about your company.
Chris Howard: NorthStar Investors is a holding company owned by one of the founders of Oracle (Stuart Feigin) and myself. We buy, start, build and sell companies and advise other entrepreneurs along the way. Our headquarters is in Reno, but our scope is international with regard to manufacturing our products and serving our markets. We are keenly committed to working closely with EDAWN and UNR's entrepreneurial initiative to help develop the business infrastructure in northern Nevada.
NNBW: What role do you play in the company?
Howard: Let me guess our employees put you up to asking me this question.
NNBW: How did you get into this profession?
Howard: I became an entrepreneur/consultant by evolution, not design. I suspect my willingness to adapt and my opportunistic nature worked to my advantage in finding this niche.
NNBW: What is something no one knows about your job?
Howard: My work has no finish line, so I never really know if I am winning or losing the race.
NNBW: If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice?
Howard: I would have liked to have been a veterinarian, but I would have found it difficult to handle the emotional impact of not being able to save all the animals.
NNBW: What do you like to do when you're not working?
Howard: I generally go along with whatever itinerary my wife has set, sometimes grumbling all the way.
NNBW: Have any advice for someone who wants to enter your profession?
Howard: Do not be bound by pre-conceived paradigms and prepare yourself to convert major obstacles into speed bumps.
NNBW: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why would you want it?
Howard: Time travel. The ability to correct past mistakes would be invaluable.
NNBW: What person, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with, and why?
Howard: Colin Powell I think he would provide some very interesting insight on many different fronts.
NNBW: What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Howard: Assemble the facts before you act - don't trust your instincts (source USAF).
NNBW: What do you like most about your job?
Howard: The range of activities is broad and seldom repetitive.
NNBW: What do you like least?
Howard: I find dealing with the emotional responses and egos of others to be most trying.
NNBW: What five words would most people use to describe you?
Howard: Focused, methodical, reliable, reasonable, trustworthy. (I actually asked people).
The basics:
Name: Chris Howard, CEO/principal of NorthStar Investors, Inc.
How long have you been in this job? Eight years
How long in the profession? For 33 years
Education: BA Economics/Stanford, MBA/ Santa Clara University, Certified Management Accountant, Certified Management Consultant
Best book you've read? "Cats Paws and Catapults" by Steven Vogel - the most complete and condensed physics, engineering and biomechanics text available. I find it helpful in business to also understand the physical nature of the environment in which we operate.
What's on your iPod? What's an iPod? I do have all the ZZ Top CD's though...
The best movie ever? The first Harry Potter Movie
Spouse, kids or pets? Doni, my wife (and best friend) keeps me and our five grown children on course she is a bit more lenient with our six grandchildren and four cats and dogs.
