USAFA Class Histories

Howard Kraye has a varied background in setting up, managing and turning around businesses. He has managed and owned both small and large organizations in the fields of electronics, construction, alternative energy, metal fabrication, textiles and transportation. Howard is a recent New Mexico resident having moved here in June 1990 to start up a manufacturing operation for a group of local venture capitalists.

Howard has an undergraduate degree from the United States Air Force Academy, master€™s in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, and a master€™s in Business Administration from Pepperdine University. Because of his broad experience and background, he has taught at several colleges and universities as a visiting professor in operations research, statistics, general management, and total quality management. He currently teaches for the University of New Mexico, the University of Phoenix, Webster University, and Chapman University. He has also found time to chair several state and federal commissions that have dealt with topics ranging from implementing alternative energy to converting the U.S. to the metric system. And if that doesn€™t keep him busy enough, he is in great demand as a guest speaker all across the United States as well as Japan and Europe. Early this year, Inc. Magazine€™s published a book €œManaging People, 101 Proven Ideas from America€™s Smallest Companies,€ which features two of the management ideas Howard developed.

Before coming to New Mexico, Howard helped turn-around two businesses: one in electronics and the other in textiles. He credits his success in turning businesses around to his total commitment to the principles of empowerment, team building, and world-class quality.

Howard just recently sold his interest in the company he came to here to start up; but only after the company showed a first-year pretax earning of 13%, had paid back all the investor€™s start-up capital, refunded money to its major customer, and was co-winner with Intel Corporation of the U.S. Senate Productivity Award for 1991 in the large business category.

Not one to just kick back, in April 1992, he started Sante Fe Technologies Inc., an information and services company that provides high-quality air quality and traffic monitoring information services to government and private institutions. Sante Fe Technologies was selected as part of a team that went to Barcelona, Spain during the €˜92 Olympics. With the other team members from IBM, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the University of Cataluna, The University of Karlshrue, and the various traffic departments of Barcelona, Spain, they conducted a study to determine the relationship between traffic and air pollution during the Olympic Games. In December 1992, he was honored with the Alliance For Transportation€™s 1992 Private Partnership Award for Transportation Science and Ethics. Howard just finished heading up a team of scientists that conducted studies in Albuquerque and Las Cruces, NM to determine the relationship between traffic and air quality in metropolitan areas. Sante Fe Technologies is currently developing projects in California, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, Mississippi, and Mexico.  Submitted 1998.