Ed Zschau

Edwin Van Wyck Zschau
Born	(1940-01-06) January 6, 1940 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Academic, businessman, politician
Years active	1960s–present
Known for	U.S. Representative from California (1983–1987), Interim President of Sierra Nevada College (2019–2020)

Edwin Van Wyck Zschau (; born January 6, 1940) is an American academic and former congressman who represented California's 12th District in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 1987. In the 1986 Senate contest, he emerged victorious in a competitive Republican primary against prominent candidates including commentator Bruce Herschensohn, Los Angeles County supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, and Congresswoman Bobbi Fiedler, but was narrowly defeated by incumbent Democrat Alan Cranston.

Zschau made a brief reentry into politics as the vice presidential candidate alongside former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, a Democrat, during the Reform Party's presidential nomination bid in the 1996 election.

On May 26, 2019, Dr. Zschau was named Interim President of Sierra Nevada College, a position he held until his successor assumed office the following year.

Biography

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Zschau was a champion figure skater during his teenage years.

He graduated with honors, earning an A.B. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1961; his senior thesis was entitled "Space Time and Geometry from Kant to Einstein." He further obtained M.B.A., M.S. (in statistics), and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University.

During the 1960s, Zschau served as an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he taught courses on computer systems, management science, and business policy. Between 1967 and 1968, he held a visiting assistant professorship at the Harvard Business School, instructing first-year MBA students in managerial economics.

In 1968, Zschau established the computer firm System Industries and acted as its CEO until 1981. Among his collaborators was Henry B. Eyring.

By 1987, he became a general partner at Brentwood Associates, a venture capital firm based in Los Angeles. A year later, he was elected chairman and CEO of Censtor Corp., a company founded by Brentwood to create advanced magnetic recording components for disk drives. In 1993, he took on the role of chairman and CEO at AdStar, IBM's Storage Systems Division.

Zschau is the founding chairman emeritus and serves on the National Advisory Board of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. He also participates on the board of scholars at the ACCF Center for Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and holds fellowship with the California Council on Science and Technology. Additionally, he leads NanoOpto Corporation, Princeton Power Systems, and StarTek, Inc. He presides over Polyera Corporation and has served as a director for both The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (NYSE) and Washington Live, Inc.

Currently, Zschau holds a visiting lecturer position with professor rank at Princeton University within Electrical Engineering, Operations Research and Financial Engineering departments, as well as at the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. Between 1997 and 2000, he was a management professor at Harvard Business School while also serving as a visiting professor at Princeton. He has mentored entrepreneur Tim Ferriss. During summer 2019, Zschau accepted an unpaid appointment as Interim President of Sierra Nevada University located in Incline Village, Nevada.

Personal life

Zschau and his spouse, Jo, maintain residences in both Nantucket, Massachusetts and Los Altos, California. Together, they have three children: one son and two daughters.

He is also recognized for his ukulele performances, which led to the moniker "singing congressman."