Press & Media Events 2011 - 2012 - Vision Motor Corp

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 pro-
duction 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