Gary Dickerson (2006) is the man who built KLA-Tencor’s mind-share in the nineties
- He then left to go to Varian Semiconductor, which was locked in small company purgatory
- They had great product and technology, but couldn’t go anywhere because customers were too afraid to take the risk
- Worse, many customers had been burned by Varian in the eighties
- Gary’s taking them into a strong leadership position is proof of prowess . . . proof that he wasn’t just lucky at K-T
- Gary was the soft and gentle side of K-T
- Look into his eyes and you’ll see a man who’s easy to trust
- But he never took advantage of it
- He always makes sure his organization can do what he promises or he doesn’t promise it
- He is a Zen master of the customer relationship