Exchange Magazine, Fall 2003 - Duke University's Fuqua School of ...

24 FUQUA EXCHANGE
The Fuqua School of Business
ALUMNI PROFILES
HENRY
DANZIGER
CZECH MATE
BY JOHN MANUEL
As a boy growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Henry Danziger ’02 was
particularly good at two things. “I was a technically astute tinkerer,
always taking things apart, building model airplanes and
cars,” Danziger recalls. “And I was a good negotiator. I remember
talking my father into buying a sports car he wasn’t sure he
wanted. I recognized that everyone has different interests and
everyone has a common interest. The key to successful negotiation
is finding that common interest.”
In his teenage years, Danziger imparted his technical skills
into summer jobs as a tow-truck driver, tire repairman and in
assembly line work in a window and an ice cream factory. He
acquired practical knowledge in how a range of service and
manufacturing industries functioned and a familiarity with
the people who worked in those jobs. At age 13, he participated
in an exchange week with his middle school French class, traveling
to France and Switzerland. “I enjoyed that week so much
that I returned to Europe at least once a year after I turned 18,”
he says. “I began to think it might be nice to live there.”
Danziger’s ease in a European setting, combined with his
technical acumen and skills as a negotiator, eventually led him
into a job as a marketing engineer and later business development
engineer with Westinghouse Process Control Europe
where he developed and implemented marketing strategies in
Europe and the Middle East, provided technical and commercial
support to Westinghouse distributors in Germany, England,
Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and negotiated joint ventures
between Westinghouse and CEZ, the national power company in
Czechoslovakia, a country that attracted his attention.
Prague in the early 90’s was a hotbed of economic, political
and social change. “There was no status quo; change was nonstop,”
Danziger says. “Each day meant expecting the
unexpected, personally and professionally. There was no comparison
when choosing whether to live in Pittsburgh or
Prague. I wanted the excitement.”
In 1993, Danziger moved to Prague to serve as project specialist
with Westinghouse Electric in support of a $400 million
contract with CEZ to finish the construction of a Russiandesigned,
Czech-built nuclear power station in South
Bohemia. After three years with Westinghouse in Europe,
Danziger had the know-how and confidence to strike out on
his own. In November, 1995, he founded NASAM Technical
Marketing, Inc. to help American companies explore entrepreneurial
possibilities in developing eastern European markets.
Danziger’s principal Czech client was Skoda Nuclear
Machinery, a subsidiary of Skoda Holding a.s., one of the
largest Czech engineering concerns. When the Czech Republic
joined NATO in 1998, possibilities opened up for this Czech
manufacturing concern to provide parts for NATO warplanes.
Danziger helped Skoda build relationships with American
firms such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. He developed the
Aerospace and Advanced Technology Initiative, a program to
convert Skoda’s precision nuclear machining facility to aerospace
component production.
In 1998, Danziger launched a second venture, this one with
former Czech foreign minister Josef Zieleniec. “A mutual
friend introduced me to the former foreign minister at the