Date: Fri 05-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SUZANN

Quick Words:

inventor-Cliff-Evans

Full Text:

An Invention For The Forgetful Consumer

(with cut)

BY SUZANNA NYBERG

When Cliff Evans sold his $9 million-a-year company to a Fortune 500 firm, he

thought that he would be content playing golf and helping his wife, Denise,

raise their three children, Conor, Daniel, and Megan. Despite the time to

relax and watch his children grow at their Ashford Lane home, the

entrepreneurial inventor of nuclear products soon became restless and began

tinkering again.

The result of this tinkering, Credit Guard, will save thousands of Americans

countless moments of panic when they realize they have misplaced their credit

cards as well as save millions of dollars for credit card companies in issuing

new cards and opening and replacing consumers' accounts.

Credit Guard, a small electronic device run on a lithium battery, issues a

reminder via a gentle beep that a card has been removed from a wallet.

"This beeping will stop only when the missing card has been returned," Mr

Evans said.

Credit Guard fits all wallets, can protect multiple cards, and has a battery

that will last virtually a lifetime.

According to statistics from Visa and MasterCard, 200,000 Americans per day

misplace a credit card, and according to Mr Evans' own research, the culprit

is not the elderly. "Soccer moms account for 60 percent of the problem," he

said. "The mom with two kids in Filenes has her mind on which rack the kids

are hiding behind, not her credit cards." The problem is becoming worse as

more businesses issue their own cards and, predicts Mr Evans, will be further

exacerbated when the United States catches up to Europe and makes all

transactions by card instead of cash.

The inspiration for Credit Guard came from Mr Evans' physician who, along with

his wife, both left their MasterCards in different restaurants on the same

day. "I realized that if someone such as my own doctor did something like

that, then there was a need for a product," the inventor said.

While not in the stores yet, Credit Guard, which costs $19.95, can be found in

catalogues such as Brookstones. Regrettably, says Mr Evans, it will not be

manufactured in Connecticut, but instead in Mexico, Hong Kong, and New York.

"I had the opportunity to put 100 people to work here," he said. "But the

state was not helpful and an Enterprise Zone in Bridgeport, where I would have

liked to situate the business, quoted me the highest price to assemble."

Creative Solutions

Mr Evans used to have teams of Americans working for him. He started out in

the nuclear technology business more than 20 years ago, inventing and

manufacturing products for pressurized water reactors, reactors that operate

at higher pressures and generate more power than boiling water reactors.

Today, plants around the world use his steam generator nozzle dam, his first

product and one essential for offloading fuel during the reactor's outage.

All nuclear plants have a scheduled down time, an outage, usually lasting 30

days where they must shut down for refueling and yet continue to generate

power. During this outage, they can use neither oil nor coal for it would

create too much acid rain. They must purchase energy from somewhere else,

generally another nuclear facility. Limiting an outage to as few as days as

possible saves the plant money.

Mr Evans's product cut a plant's outage from 30 days to 24, saving the plant

millions of dollars.

Nuclear reactors also use Mr Evans' Remotely Operating Manipulating Arm

[ROMA], a robot that installs equipment in the generator. "After we had to

pull an overexposed radiologically limp body from a hole, I realized the

industry needed a new product," Mr Evans said. Previously, working in

pressurized suits in which airborne contaminants could not enter, his men

crawled 40 inches through 16 inch holes to install nozzle dams in the

generators, less than five feet away from the reactor. These men, who trained

for a week on what is essentially a fairly routine installation job, had less

than a minute to complete the task or run the risk of suffering too much

exposure. "My heart was in my throat as I had people do this type of work," Mr

Evans said. ROMA has obviated this operation and created jobs for technicians

who operate the robots from their video monitors.

A Unique Company

Mr Evans ran a unique company, one where, he said, good people complemented

his product. At Busitech, employees worked no set hours, traveled first class,

stayed in the best hotels, ate the finest food, and received instant

gratification in the form of bonuses for work completed. Field supervisors

earned upward of $150,000 a year and secretaries earned $80,000. "If someone

needed time off, they just took it," Mr Evans said. "I wanted to design

products, not play policeman."

By 1991, the company was earning nine million dollars. "It grew so fast that

it grew beyond me," Mr Evans said. The frenetic demands of the work often

pulled him from bed at four in the morning and had him on a 7 am flight cross

the country to correct a nozzle problem in eight hours or let his client

suffer a $4 million loss for one day of outage. This type of loss, Mr Evans

maintains, never occurred. In one year, he flew 500,000 domestic miles and

rented 400 cars. Although proud of his accomplishments as a businessman, he

maintains that inventing has always been his first love.

It is to that love and to his family that he has returned, with nostalgia, for

an exciting past and confidence that all three of his children will work with

him on projects in the future.