By James R. Hagerty
Charles Wang
1944-2018
As a student at Queens College in the 1960s, Charles B. Wang
wasn't sure what he wanted to be but was determined to find steady
work. An immigrant who grew up in the New York borough of Queens,
he earned a degree in math and physics and trained as a
teacher.
Then he noticed that newspapers were full of job ads for
computer programmers. "That looked like job security," Mr. Wang
told Fortune magazine in 1997. Though he knew little about coding,
he got a job as a programming trainee at a Columbia University
research lab.
Mr. Wang, who died Oct. 21 of lung cancer at his home in Oyster
Bay, N.Y., soon aimed higher. He and a friend from Queens College,
Russell Artzt, founded Computer Associates International Inc. in
1976 to provide software for mainframe computers. By the late
1990s, CA was one of the nation's biggest software companies,
though far less known than Microsoft Corp. or Oracle Corp.
Mr. Wang's final years at the company were tarnished by
controversy. After he received a stock grant of $670 million in
1998, some shareholders charged his compensation was excessive.
Federal investigators then uncovered what they described as a $2.2
billion accounting fraud involving backdating of contracts to
manipulate earnings.
Mr. Wang's successor as CEO, Sanjay Kumar, in 2006 pleaded
guilty to federal charges related to CA's accounting and was
sentenced to 12 years in prison. Mr. Wang wasn't prosecuted, but a
report by a special committee of CA directors in 2007 said it had
found "credible evidence he directed and participated in" the
backdating of contracts. Mr. Wang denounced the report as
"fallacious."
After he left CA in 2002, Mr. Wang was known mainly as the
majority owner of the New York Islanders hockey team. He fought for
years to persuade local authorities to build a new arena for the
team on Long Island, blamed politicians for thwarting the plan and
described that experience as "a bit of hell." A novice in the world
of hockey, he once suggested trying out sumo wrestlers as
goalies.
Charles Wang (pronounced WONG) was born Aug. 19, 1944, in
Shanghai, where his father was a judge. In the early 1950s, the
family emigrated to the U.S. and settled in New York. His father
later became a law professor, and his mother worked as a librarian.
The family initially squeezed into a small apartment, and Mr. Wang
later remembered wearing hand-me-down clothing.
The first time his parents tried to buy a single-family house,
some neighbors circulated a petition asking the owner not to sell
the property to Asians. The Wangs ended up buying another home
nearby.
As a young man, Charles Wang worked in supermarkets and waited
on tables. " Bill Gates might know a lot of things, but he doesn't
know what it's like to be hungry," he later said.
Messrs. Wang and Artzt had little money to invest when they
launched Computer Associates in 1976. Unable to afford an IBM
mainframe, they rented time on one. They offered their programming
services to the owner of a computer-services bureau in exchange for
free rent in a Manhattan office building.
One of their earliest software products was a program to manage
disk space and ensure that files weren't accidentally wiped out.
"It was one of the gaps in the system that we found, and it started
selling like crazy," Mr. Artzt said.
The company later moved to a series of larger offices on Long
Island. Mr. Wang and his colleagues made about 200 acquisitions and
became known for slashing head counts and other costs at acquired
firms. Some saw the cost-cutting as ruthless, but Mr. Wang defended
his hard-nosed approach. Rather than leaving employees to stew for
months over their fate, he said, "We tell them the truth so they
can get on with their lives."
In a 1998 interview with the Washington Post, he was
unapologetic: "When you make an acquisition, you have to clean up.
I am not the kind of person who puts his finger in the wind. I am
not politically correct. I am the leader of this company. It's a
one-headed dragon. It all leads to me."
CA installed a child-care center at its headquarters in
Islandia, N.Y., and provided free breakfast for employees. Some saw
the breakfasts as a generous perk, others as a sign that employees
were expected to show up early. Selected colleagues regularly
showed up at Mr. Wang's home, where he had an indoor basketball
court, for highly competitive games, including one in which he
broke his nose.
Mr. Wang enjoyed cooking for friends and wrote a book, "Wok Like
a Man," featuring his favorite Chinese recipes.
After leaving CA, he invested in real estate and worked on
philanthropic projects. He founded Smile Train, a charity that
provides free surgeries for cleft lips and palates. He also was a
major donor to Stony Brook University.
One day in 2015, Stony Brook awarded honorary doctorates to Mr.
Wang and to the singer Billy Joel. Despite his wealth and
high-profile role with the Islanders, Mr. Wang still wasn't
well-known to the public. In his acceptance speech, he said at
first he wasn't sure why he was chosen for the honor but then
realized the university needed him as "the opening act for Billy
Joel."
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 26, 2018 16:28 ET (20:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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