VOLUME 11, NO. 1     MAY 1997

Juhola and Covec on a roll at Microbar

So! You don't believe that truth is stranger than fiction? Ring up Bruce Juhola and Paul Covec of the Class of '64. You might have a change of heart. They have a tale to tell.

Juhola is president and CEO of Microbar Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., a company that manufactures and markets safe chemical management systems for the semiconductor industry. A couple of years ago, when Microbar was looking for someone to fill a senior marketing post, Juhola says, "one of my business associates recommended an associate of his. A guy named Paul Covec. Covec?" [Covec was known as Vajcovec in 1964.]

Covec recognized Juhola's name as soon as he learned about the opening at Microbar. "Not only are we WPI alumni," he says, "we were in the same class, and we even worked together on the staff of Tech News as seniors." Unexpectedly reunited after 30 years, Covec joined Juhola as a consultant in 1994, and joined Microbar shortly thereafter as vice president of business development.

"It's pretty rare that two guys from the East Coast and from the same college class end up working together at a small company in California," Juhola observes. The joint venture appears to be a happy one. "My chemical engineering background and Paul's electrical engineering background mesh well at Microbar," he notes.

The classmates must be doing something right. The Association of Technology Business Councils recently ranked Microbar as the fifth fastest growing high technology company, public or private, in Silicon Valley. In September, the firm was recognized for this achievement at the 1996 Silicon Valley Technology Fast 50 awards banquet.

Microbar, which employs 110 workers, is the fastest growing private company in the Valley. It's a mushrooming success because it is on the cutting edge in its field. It emerged in 1992 in the booming semiconductor business with a concept for safe and efficient automated chemical management solutions. Since then, according to Juhola, it has advanced this technology to offer a closed-loop system of chemical management from bulk-fill systems, through dispense systems, to automatic waste removal in semiconductor fabrication processes.

"Today, semiconductor manufacturers are faced with a widening array of challenges that cannot be met without safe liquid chemical management systems," Covec says. For example, a chemical spill in a poorly managed cleanroom can cost a manufacturer as much as $100,000 an hour in cleanup time and factory downtime. It's no wonder that manufacturers look to Microbar for better management systems.

Juhola and Covec not only have the engineering experience to give manufacturers what they need, they have the know-how to keep the company moving ahead. Juhola, who spent 20 years in marketing management at Raychem Corp., directs Microbar's overall growth strategy. Covec, in marketing for more than two decades with such companies as Prometrix and Teradyne, heads foreign and domestic marketing activities and sales expansion efforts in Asia.

Between 1991 and 1995 Microbar revenues skyrocketed by 3,038 percent. In 1996, revenues topped $18 million. The former Tech News boys are definitely on a roll!

Ruth Trask

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