Press & Media Events 2011 - 2012 - Vision Motor Corp

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LOSANGELESBUSINESS JOURNAL Volume 34, Number 5 THE COMMUNITY OF BUSINESS January 30 - February 5, 2012 • $3.00 TM Up Front Why Jacques Tizabi’s radiation detectors are clicking. PAGE 3 News & Analysis Soon-to-open Red Building is feeling mighty blue. PAGE 12 People How Martin Schuermann went from movies to hydrogen trucks. PAGE 15 MAIL TO: By JONATHAN POLAKOFF Staff Reporter S OME 2,000 people showed up to the Wiltern Theater in December and paid up to $120 to see Drunken Tiger, Yoon Mi Rae and Bizzy perform live. It was enough to fill the theater, but it was nothing compared with the 18,000 people who packed the Staples Center to see Girls’ Generation and Super Junior sing and dance to heavy bass and synthesizers. So who are these artists you almost certainly have never heard who bring screaming masses to their feet? They are part of the latest musical craze: labusinessjournal.com Forced-LaborLawBindsBusiness? REGULATION: Companies fear state act will spur lawsuits. By BETHANY FIRNHABER Staff Reporter Large local retailers and manufacturers have been adding elements to their websites in recent weeks: prominent links explaining the steps they’ve taken to identify and eliminate any forced labor in their supply chains. They’re doing it because they must comply with a state law that took effect Jan. 1. But some businesses are concerned that by following the new law, they’re making themselves targets for lawsuits. The new California Transparency in Supply Chains Act requires retailers and manufacturers with more than $100 million in annual revenue and a significant presence in the state to disclose publicly their efforts to identify any suppliers or subsuppliers that use forced labor or human trafficking, and what the company is doing to eradicate it. They don’t necessarily have to do anything other than disclose what steps they’ve taken, if any. But some local businesses and lawyers say the new act allows citizens and activists to sue companies under the law, which means the companies Please see REGULATION Page 49 Booming Base Music Man: Powerhouse’s C.S. Hah at Nokia Theater. Korean pop a high-volume import in L.A. imported Korean pop music, or K-Pop. Its epicenter is Los Angeles and the man behind the movement is C.S. Hah, founder of Miracle Mile concert promoter Powerhouse, who has made the unlikely transition from newspaper reporter to the premier promoter of K-Pop. Los Angeles is home to some 300,000 Koreans, the largest immigrant community outside of that country, but even Hah has been taken aback by how quickly K-Pop has caught on – and not just with ethnic fans. He recalls selling 7,000 tick- Please see MUSIC Page 52 RINGO H.W. CHIU/LABJ Counsel: Steptoe & Johnson’s Richard Reinis. RINGO H.W. CHIU/LABJ Electric Trucks Seek Euro Spark AUTOMOTIVE: Maker Balqon looks abroad after port bellyflop. By JAMES RUFUS KOREN Staff Reporter When Balqon Corp. sold its expensive and experimental electric trucks to the Port of Los Angeles a few years ago, it hoped companies that tested the vehicles would buy more. But operators didn’t like the trucks, finding their batteries ran out quickly while hauling heavy loads. So they parked them despite the port’s $6.4 million investment. Now, the Harbor City company is betting it can revive its fortunes with a better battery – and by leveraging sky-high European diesel prices. Balqon is supplying its electric drive trains to Belgian truck maker Mol Transport Solutions for sale in Europe, where Balqon Chief Executive Balwinder Samra believes diesel prices are high enough Please see AUTOMOTIVE Page 50 Water Firm Dips Toe Back in Desert UTILITY: New client prompts Cadiz to revive aquifer project. By HOWARD FINE Staff Reporter More than a decade after its first plan to create a Mojave Desert water storage project collapsed amid environmental uproar, Cadiz Inc. is gaining momentum with a second try that the company hopes doesn’t turn into another mirage. The L.A. holding company has been trying for nearly two decades to develop a water storage and sales project for an aquifer under its 45,000-acre holdings east of the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Station. The company plans to sell the water to distributors across Southern California. Now, it seems to be making progress. In recent weeks, Cadiz has signed up a sixth water distributor to participate in the project. That gives the company Please see UTILITY Page 50
JANUARY 30, 2012 PEOPLE LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL 15 On Emission The By JAMES RUFUS KOREN Staff Reporter WHEN he first left Germany to come to business school in Los Angeles, Martin Schuermann thought he was headed west for the beach. Instead, his cab driver took him to Azusa, as in Azusa Pacific University in the San Gabriel Valley. That was just the first of several unexpected turns that led Schuermann, who thought he would be a banker in Germany, to become the chief executive of Vision Motor Corp., an El Segundo company that is developing experimental electric trucks. Unlike most electric trucks, Vision’s vehicles use a hydrogen fuel cell to charge batteries on the go. It’s interesting stuff and quite a switch for Schuermann, who previously had been in the entertainment industry, working for actor Don Johnson, German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG and Hollywood film production company Intermedia Entertainment. He also has a celebrity wife: former MTV VJ Downtown Julie Brown. Schuermann met with the Business Journal at his El Segundo office to talk about how he owes his job to his spouse, how me made the switch from show business and how he plans to revolutionize trucking. Question: You almost certainly are the only guy running a truck company that was once in the movie industry. How did you get into Hollywood. Answer: I was finishing my M.B.A. thesis in 1991 and, through this internship at a film company, I ran into Don Johnson. Don and I became good friends, so in ’92, Don basically invites me to come to his company – Buffalo Wallet Productions. Is that why you came to the U.S., to get into the entertainment industry? No, I had my eyes on banking. I did a bank apprenticeship in Germany and studied international business at University of Munster, so I really wanted to stay on the business side. My plan was to come here and get an M.B.A., maybe a year and a half of practical training at an investment bank in L.A., and then get back to Germany. But, you know, I got stuck. Where’d you get your M.B.A.? That’s a funny story, actually. I’m all ears. There was this supposedly Los Angeles university called Azusa Pacific University. Yes, in the heart of Los Angeles … Exactly. (Laughs.) So they were promoting their M.B.A. program at the University of Munster and I figured this must be a good school to go to. I applied, I got accepted and basically jumped right in. When did you realize how far from L.A. it was? I arrived at LAX and jumped in a cab and showed the cab driver the address. He looks at me and says, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to take a shuttle?’ I said, ‘No, take me to this address.’ So he gets on the freeway and he turns east. After like 40 minutes, I say, ‘Hey man, the beach is that way!’ So you hadn’t looked this up beforehand? Well, keep in mind, back then we didn’t have Google maps and things. It was not as easy to do. I probably could have done a little more research (laughs), but I was so excited. What was Azusa like? It’s a pretty Spanish neighborhood. Coming from Germany, that’s a real culture shock. I was like, ‘Wow, people speak more Spanish than English.’ My roommate, who was also from University of Munster, he and I had the same reaction and decided we had to do something. Like what? We made sure to finish our classes in Azusa before September, and then made a deal with the dean there that we could do the rest of our classes at UCLA. So we were done with Azusa by the summer and we could move to the beach. We became roommates in Marina Del Rey and finished our M.B.A.s from there. Did you feel like you’d been duped? I think there was a bit of false advertisement. There should have been some disclaimer, but I don’t regret it. It was fun. It was an experience. So exactly how did you run into Don Johnson, and what made you guys hit it off? I loaned money to a company that was developing a project with him and Melanie (Griffith), so I had the pleasure to participate in private meetings with Don and his agent. That’s how we met, and we just hit it off. We traveled together quite extensively. He’s a very smart, very fun guy. How much did you loan the project? I think it was $125,000. Where’d a young guy get that kind of money? It was savings. I always worked; I always made money. My family is well-off, but we also have always learned to budget and put away money. What did you do? During my high school time, I always worked on the side as a roadie. I did that all the way through undergraduate studies. Work for any big bands? Oh, yeah. I worked for the largest lighting company, at the time, in Germany. So we had every big act, from Michael Jackson to Pink Floyd to ports’ clean truck programs drove German immigrant Martin Schuermann to switch from show business to the electric vehicle industry. RINGO H.W. CHIU/LABJ Under the Hood: Vision Motor Chief Executive Martin Schuermann at the electric vehicle maker’s facility in El Segundo. Martin Schuermann TITLE: Chief Executive COMPANY: Vision Motor Corp. BORN: Hamm, Germany; 1965. EDUCATION: Studied international business at University of Munster; M.B.A. from Azusa Pacific University. CAREER TURNING POINT: Meeting actor Don Johnson in 1991 and going to work for him. MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE: Am.b.a.ssador Steven Green, a friend since 1993 and former U.S. am.b.a.ssador to Singapore. His father, Karl Heinz Schuermann, “who has the strongest moral values of anybody I have ever met.” PERSONAL: Lives with his wife, Julie, and daughter, Gianna, in Marina Del Rey. “All Europeans are living as close as possible to the beach.” ACTIVITIES: Running, snowboarding, skiing, wakeboarding. Tina Turner. They would all rent from this company. It was great: free concerts and you get paid What did your parents do? My father had a large slaughterhouse, or butcher shop. He made sausages. The slogan was, “Schuermann’s sausages in everybody’s mouth.” In German, it sounds much better. When he was 40 and I was 15, he retired. He sat my brother and I down and asked us if we wanted to take over that business. We both weren’t really interested in dead animals, so he decided to sell. Then he invested in real estate. What did a young guy like you exactly do for Don? I was the executive vice president of his production company, so I was basically the financial guy. We made relationships with Bertelsmann networks, and there were developments we did with Bertelsmann’s film arm. I opened up for him the international market. Was the project you loaned money to ever produced? (Laughs). Of course not. That was my first attempt. I guess I paid the tuition for it, too. So how long did you work for Don? We did a TV show called “The Marshal,” and did work on some of the movies Don was working on. Then in ’95 we sold “Nash Bridges” to CBS. At that point, Bertelsmann approached me to represent them here in the U.S., so I thought it might be a good time for a change. How long were you there? I was there until 2000; until I met Julie. Julie being, of course, your wife, former MTV VJ Downtown Julie Brown. How’d you meet? We met in April 2000. I remember it because I was standing with the owner of a popular restaurant and nightclub in Hollywood. I was standing right at the entrance. In walks my future wife. And my friend just basically greets her, he shows her to a booth and then comes back to me to continue the conversation. And I basically said, ‘How rude of you. You just greeted this beautiful woman and you didn’t introduce me.’ So he took you over to her? He walked me over to the booth and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you. This is my friend Martin. Martin, this is Julie.” Several hours later of long talk, her car got lost in valet. We ended up sitting in my car for another hour and a half until 2 in the morning until the valet located her car. I called her actually that night, breaking every rule in the singles book. Please see page 16
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Page 7 and 8: Vision’s Tyrano Class 8 Hydrogen
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Page 15 and 16: Vision Industries Receives a Letter
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Page 24 and 25: Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When

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