Azimuth makes prestigious Inc. 500 list
by Sam Vargo, Business Editor
FAIRMONT -- Azimuth Inc., based in Morgantown, was the only company in West Virginia to make the Nov. 14 Inc. 500 list of the 500 fastest growing private companies in America.
Azimuth, which makes hardware and software as a primary contractor and subcontractor, ranks 387th on the prestigious national business-magazine list, and has been the first West Virginia company in four years to be placed on this index.
Inc. Magazine published the list in mid-November. Azimuth won another national business award in 1995 when it was given a Blue Chip Enterprise award.
Azimuth, founded in 1989 in Morgantown by Craig W. Hartzell, senior vice president, has grown significantly, having recorded $969,000 in sales in 1993 and $8.5 million in 1997, Hartzell said.
"In recent years, we've grossed more than $6 million a year. In the last three years, we've really grown," he said.
The company employs 95 workers at locations in Fairmont, Morgantown and six out-of-state sites, he said.
"We go after hands-on electronic hardware and software work," Hartzell said. "We're not playing games and shuffling a lot of paper around. We like wrench turning and building systems."
In West Virginia, about 50 percent of all Azimuth's work is done for Electronic Warfare Associates Inc., Azimuth's mentoring firm. Other major clients include the U.S. Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Lockheed Martin, he said.
Three large, locally-based projects the company is performing include: the upgrade of a high-grade computer network for the Morgantown Utility Board; an effort, with Boeing, to design and build electronic computer systems for a rapid transit system at West Virginia University; and developing a prototype device that will enable measurement of flow and density for fluidized bed coal for a power plant.
"We're doing electronic software networking and Computer Aided Drafting for these systems," Hartzell said.
"We've all worked for other companies and there's a lot of experience here," said Eric Starn, vice president of engineering. "In the kind of work we do, we have to make maintainable systems. If they break down, they must be able to be repaired or replaced."
Most companies in the Alan B. Mollohan building in the I-79 Technology Park concentrate on making software, but between Azimuth and Electronic Warfare Associates, hardware, software and networking of systems are made, Hartzell said.
The founder said the reason Azimuth was named to the Inc. 500 list was because it teams right with other companies and it has high ethics and works hard.
"Generally, we team with other companies on everything we do, even when we're the prime contractor." Hartzell said. "We choose subcontractors by their reputation, capability and personnel."
Azimuth is one of the nine original companies that set up shop in the Alan B. Mollohan Innovation Center. Today, it is the third largest floor space lessee inside the building, Hartzell said.
"We employ 25 people, all engineers, at the Innovation Center. Four engineers work with Lockheed Martin at the FBI center and 12 others work in our Morgantown office. Overall, half our staff is in West Virginia," he said.
The privately-held company has three principal owners: Hartzell, Adam Macias, president; and Tina Belt, vice president of finance.
Azimuth got its start in Morgantown after Hartzell founded the company and initially, was the firm's only worker. In the late 80's, Hartzell was working for another company that wanted to transfer him to either Douglas, Ariz., four miles from the Mexican border, or to New Jersey, he said.
"I didn't want to leave the beautiful mountains, streams and trees of West Virginia for the desert so I stayed here," he said.
Over the years, Azimuth has received support from Gov. Cecil H. Underwood, John Snider (of the Governor's Community and Industrial Development Office), U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd and U.S. Rep. Alan B. Mollohan and their staffs, he said.
"At one time, we would have painted lines in a parking lot," Hartzell joked. "But today, we don't work for just anyone. Our first major federal contract was supporting the U.S. military's Joint Task Force for military and humanitarian aid work."
Azimuth mirrors a lot of what Electronic Warfare Associates performs. Hartzell has a lot of gratitude to EWA and said his firm probably would not exist without this mentor, which has helped them grow over the course of the last decade.
Of the company's 45 employees based in West Virginia, only two are from out of state. All senior management are West Virginians. In hiring people, Hartzell said the primary quality he looks for are potential employees with good attitudes.
"We treat people well and have a low turnover. We don't like losing people. Our Fairmont office is our pride and joy. In fact, we have $500,000 in tools and test equipment alone at the Innovation Center," he said.
"The equipment we make has a one-of-a-kind design and is being made nowhere else. There's nothing like it anywhere. Because we do so much work for the military, this equipment must be durable and Battelle Corp. in Columbus, Ohio, tests a lot of it for temperature and shock resistance," he said.
Booming state company makes list
Azimuth improved sales 780 percent in four years
By George Hohmann, Daily Mail Business Editor
MORGANTOWN -- Azimuth Inc. of Morgantown is the only West Virginia company to make Inc. Magazine's current list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in America.
Azimuth is the first West Virginia company to make the list in four years.
The provider of electronics and software engineering support services ranks 387th on the inc. 500 list, registering a growth in sales from $969,000 in 1993 to $8.5 million in 1997 -- an eye-popping 780 percent increase.
"Things couldn't be better here, really," Craig Hartzell, Azimuth senior vice president, said during an interview in the employee lunchroom of Azimuth's offices at the Morgantown Industrial Park.
Hartzell is a soft-spoken man with a piercing gaze. He is restless, constantly in motion, always on the verge of lighting another cigarette.
Just back from Panama, Hartzell offers his guest a Navy-size cup of fresh-brewed Colombian coffee and paces as he recalls Azimuth's early years.
The company was established in late 1989 as a partnership of three people: Hartzell, vice president; Adam Macias, president and chief executive officer; and Tina Belt, vice president of finance and administration.
Hartzell and Macias met in the military 25 years ago and formed a lasting friendship. Belt is a West Virginia University graduate and a former assistant to the comptroller at Consolidation Coal Co.
Hartzell, who can trace his family's history in West Virginia back more than 100 years, said he was working in New Jersey "and hating it" when Cecil Underwood visited on behalf of Sen. Robert Byrd, seeking someone who would transfer to West Virginia to pursue opportunities here.
Hartzell was chosen because management knew he wanted to live and work in a rural setting and because he was single and could easily move.
Shortly after coming to West Virginia, Hartzell recruited his old friend Macias and they established Azimuth Inc.
The original plan was "to form a nice little business so I could stay in Morgantown and work for the Department of Defense," Hartzell said. "We envisioned a company with 10-15 people."
"It took a good year and a half to say we were going to make it," he said. "We had a lot of help from a lot of people. We had political pats on the back and encouragement from (Congressman Alan) Mollohan, Sen. Byrd, Underwood. They really helped, introducing us to others."
"We're still here because our accountant, our attorney, our banker and our insurance agent extended us credit," he said. "They thought maybe we would make it and helped us out."
Hartzell said Azimuth continues to have professional relationships with accountant John Elder of the accounting firm Toothman Rice, attorney George Armistead, banker Barton Loar and insurance agent Ed Heflin.
According to Hartzell, Azimuth also owes its early success to Electronic Warfare Associates of Herndon, Va. The company opened an office in Fairmont and took Azimuth under its wing in a mentor-protege program. Azimuth became an Electronic Warfare Associates subcontractor on several Defense Department projects.
Azimuth now has 92 employees in Fairmont, Morgantown and six out-of-state sites.
"We've become a small business with a very good reputation for hard work and integrity," Hartzell said.
In West Virginia, the company is an electronics and software engineering firm.
"We do hardcore research and development in electronics and software engineering," he said. "We build systems from the ground up. You can't find that everywhere around here."
Although most of Azimuth's work is for the military, the company has been involved in several high-profile projects. As a subcontractor to Boeing, Azimuth did the engineering drawings, custom cabling and equipment installation on the recent Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) upgrade at West Virginia University.
Azimuth also engineered the original prototype of the electronic control unit for the Road Spike, a system used by police to stop high-speed highway chases.
Out-of-state, Azimuth's focus is on logistics and program support for the military.
"Our real strength is our ability to pick the right people," Hartzell said. "Our people are first. Human beings are more important than hardware or money. We take very good care of our staff. We have a very low turnover. Our West Virginia crew is hard to beat."
Hartzell said the company's current projects are technically interesting, "which keeps talented, youthful engineers enthused." He said many of Azimuth's employees are graduates of Fairmont State College and West Virginia University. He described Azimuth's internship program as its "secret weapon" for recruiting employees.
"The defense contracting business can be dirty," he said. "We've maintained high ethical standards. It's cost us some work, I'm sure. But it has gotten us other work. People are quite pleased when they bump into us."
Does the company have a motto?
"Nothing official," Hartzell laughed. "Unofficially, it would be: 'We Always Get the Job Done.'"
With a growing staff and multiple locations, Hartzell believes Azimuth has to be careful it doesn't grow too fast.
"We don't want to get too big, too quick," he said. "We would prefer steady growth. We want to continue working with the military. We will probably stay a relatively small company, so we can continue to have fun. We're having fun now. The early years were not fun."
On several occasions in recent years, Azimuth has been the prime military contractor on several projects and "our good friends at Electronic Warfare Associates" have worked for Azimuth as a subcontractor.
"That's fairly significant," Hartzell said with a laugh.
"There are a lot more good things happening," he said. Indeed, Azimuth plans to introduce its first commercial product in the next six to eight months.
Hartzell won't reveal the product, other than to say it is a system designed for the military that has widespread nonmilitary applications.
"There are a lot more good things happening," he said. "We have a number of long-term contracts we're performing on, and more coming. We hope to open more West Virginia offices, including an office in Charleston as well as offices in several remote locations."
Writer George Hohmann can be reached at 348-4836.
The Dominion Post Sunday, August 9, 1998
3 local firms taking part in export program
Two Morgantown firms and a Fairmont firm are among 33 West Virginia companies participating in the U.S. Department of Commerce's "Push Technology" program, to increase exports from rural America.
Among the West Virginia companies taking part in the program are Azimuth, Inc. and FCX Systems Inc., both of Morgantown, and D.N. American, of Fairmont.
Nationally, 100 companies are part of the pilot program, Commerce Secretary William M. Daley announced.
"Some of today's best business opportunities are in selling products to overseas customers," said Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va. "Unfortunately, these markets can be difficult to tap. A major obstacle is the inability to get timely, relevant information on the types of goods and services that are being sought -- and who is seeking them."
Under the Push Technology program, detailed data about each participating company will be matched with data generated by the Commerce Department's overseas posts.
On a continual basis, relevant information -- including trade leads, market research, trade show listings and commercial guides -- will be "pushed" directly to the companies via the Internet, eliminating the need for them to search countless Web sites for the market opportunities.
If the one-year pilot program is successful, Mollohan said, Commerce officials will look at expanding it to a broader range of companies.
The Daily Anthaneum April 29, 1998
PRT to close for summer repairs
Planning to PRT yourself around the University after the end of finals week? Think again.
With $5.2 million being put into PRT renovation, the transportation system will be shut down from May 10 with plans calling for reopening on July 1.
During the shutdown, a new computer system for the PRT will be installed and tested.
"This project is aimed at upgrading the computer system," Bob Hendershot, the assistant Director of Transportation Services, said.
"The PRT computer system was originally installed in 1972, and thus the system is no longer easy to maintain," Hendershot said. "Among other problems, it is difficult to get spare parts."
The repairs on the old system will upgrade the 25-year-old computer, replace software, rehost the software, bring in new system interfaces and new computers and will also strive to improve reliability.
Boeing Company of Seattle is the firm that installed the original PRT system and is the primary contractor for the repairs. They did have to bid against two other organizations for this contract.
Boeing's bid included local contractors, a specification that WVU was looking for. However, when the two other bidding groups dropped out, Boeing got the job.
"Boeing has been out of the ground transportation business for 20 years, so they made the bid only as a favor to WVU," Hendershot said. "They included local contractors as a way of distancing themselves from the project."
All three contractors were based in Fairmont. Electronic Warfare, Azimuth, Incorporated, and DSD Laboratories are working on different parts of the repairs.
Electronic Warfare Associates, a 35 employee local company that is primarily a defense department contractor who has done work for the branches of the military, is working on the software aspects of the project.
"We took the old code that ran the PRT, written mostly in FORTRAN and assembly languages, and changed that over into C," Tom LaBue, the project manager for the PRT project at EWA, said. "We also did work on simulations and testing, debugging after the change into C code, and are also offering support to WVU."
Azimuth Incorporated is working on the hardware of the project, coordinating work on the new computers.
"Boeing subcontracted the hardware aspects of the project to us," Bob Brake, the program manager for Azimuth for the PRT project, said.
Azimuth is responsible for all cabling that has to be done, including the building of 179 cables and coordinating new computers along with existing electronics at the PRT stations.
DEC PDP-11's, the computers originally installed to do the work of the PRT, are being replaced by off-the-shelf pentiums.
"We will have 15. Two at each of the five stations, two at maintenance and three at central headquarters," Brake said.
At each station, one computer will run, and the other will serve as backup. At central, two of the three computers will run, with the remainder serving as backup.
All of the computers will be connected via modem with computers at central instructing the individual station ones.
DSD Laboratories' Farouk Niazy, who has worked on Navy and satellite projects, is working on testing the system once it is up and running.
"We are working to test the original system versus the new one, and we should be done by the beginning of the fall semester," Niazy said.
WVU was able to get a federal grant for $4.2 million to help defray the cost of the project. The other $1 million will come from money raised by the PRT.
"There will be no student PRT fee increase," Scott Kelley, the vice president of Administration and Finance, said, "and there is not one projected for next year."
"We have been the most advanced in the world," Hendershot said, "and with these changes, we can stay on top of the list."