Chuck & Sue Berghoff
C
Chuck Berghoff
Positive Energy
at Work for
Morgan Hill
Written By Robin Shepherd
58
huck Berghoff is a most
unusual guy. At 64, he seems to
have an endless capacity to get
involved in good work, perhaps
because his mind and heart are always in
the right place.
Chuck was born in Michigan and
educated in Minnesota. After high school
he headed to the University of Minnesota
Institute of Technology. There he pursued
a double major, pre-med and electrical
engineering, and he did it in four years.
“I wanted to build medical devices so
I applied to med school but didn’t get
in. I considered going for a PhD in bio-
engineering, but decided it was time to go
out and work instead.”
The Making of a Career
In 1973, Chuck landed a plumb job as a
quality assurance engineer with Intel, which
brought him to California. He described
Intel’s former CEO, Andy Groves, as a
gifted leader who inspired innovation by
investing in his employees’ training and
challenging them to contribute new ideas.
It wasn’t long before Chuck was promoted
to a management position.
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“Intel was an exciting place to work in
those days. I was exposed to many areas of
the business from product design to sales
and marketing. As a Quality Manager I
had decision-making power, but it came
with a lot of responsibility. One year, my
boss handed me a one-way ticket to Hong
Kong, smiled and said, ‘We’ll send you a
return ticket once you’ve solved the issues
over there.’”
It was also at Intel that Chuck met
his wife, Sue, who worked in marketing,
HR and IT management during her 10
years there. He moved into the marketing
division where he managed relationships
with AT&T, IBM, Univac and other key
accounts. As the 1970s drew to a close,
Chuck thought it might be time for a
career change.
“I called my dad and said I was thinking
of leaving Intel even though it would mean
taking a pay cut. He said ‘Chuck, when
you look back you’ll remember what you
accomplished, not what you got paid.’”
In the early 1980s, Chuck joined an
LCD technology startup and brought in
$2 million in sales within the first two
years. Then a friend offered him a job at a
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