By EDVARD PETTERSSON

Staff Reporter

At one point, during his tenure as chairman and chief executive at Wickes Cos. Inc., Sanford Sigoloff coined the nickname Ming the Merciless for himself after the villain in the “Flash Gordon” serial he watched as a kid growing up in St. Louis.

The sobriquet, along with a reputation for no-nonsense management, has followed Sigoloff through his career not always to his benefit.

“Wickes was a constant crisis from the very first minute and demanded the most out of everybody in terms of travel, personal productivity and professional excellence,” said the 68-year-old Sigoloff. “The 14- to 15-hour days were exciting, but they were also very hard, and tempers became fragile. I started calling people by their skill sets, using fictitious names from ‘Flash Gordon’ in order to break up the strain. Ming the Merciless ruled the empire, so that had to be me. But it was never intended to be brutal and uncaring.”

Indeed, some of Sigoloff’s former employees say his harsh reputation is undeserved.

Michael Sitrick, chairman of Sitrick & Co., was a senior vice president at Santa Monica-based Wickes when Sigoloff arrived in 1982 to rescue the ailing retail conglomerate in 1982. Sitrick, who was given the nickname Earth Communicator, said Sigoloff is more than a hard-nosed executive.

“Sandy is a very interesting dichotomy between being a tough businessman and a caring individual,” said Sitrick. “He threatened to take creditors to court in order to secure better severance allowances than the creditors were willing to allow for laid-off employees.”

Wickes, whose subsidiaries included hardware chain Builders Emporium, cemented Sigoloff’s reputation as a turnaround artist. He put the company in Chapter 11 and proceeded to sell off or close down money-losing operations. In the process, he put a renewed emphasis on personal service, culminating in the well-known commercials for Builders Emporium in which store workers proclaim, “We got the message, Mr. Sigoloff!”

Under his leadership, Wickes emerged from bankruptcy protection in 1985. But the success brought Sigoloff a reputation as the toughest CEO in retailing, and this reputation became less of an asset when he was considered for a number of public appointments.

In 1993, then-Gov. Pete Wilson nominated him for the post of superintendent of the state’s public schools. But the nomination encountered heavy union opposition. At the time, it was reported that labor leaders were angry over Wickes’ hostile takeover bid for Owens-Corning Fiberglass, which forced a restructuring at Owens that cost thousands of jobs.

As the unions stepped up their opposition, Sigoloff withdrew his name. Instead, he served a term on the state Board of Education.

Sigoloff ran into trouble again in 1995, when Orange County supervisors considered bringing him on in the wake of the county’s financial crisis. But they ultimately rejected him, fearing he would be too harsh in dealing with county staff.

A physicist and chemist by training, Sigoloff’s career track was as unpredictable as it was eventful.

He started out as a scientist with the Atomic Energy Commission in 1951, working on a variety of nuclear research programs for the military. By the early ’60s, he was getting “antsy,” and took a position with Electro-Optical Systems in Pasadena, a high-tech firm that was later acquired by Xerox.

While a group vice president at Xerox, Sigoloff was approached by an executive at the Bank of America who asked whether he might be interested in working at a company that was in serious trouble.

“It was what is called a transitional decision,” said Sigoloff. “I had never been exposed to a company in trouble. All I had done was scientific and technological work, but I love change and I love challenges.”

In 1970, Sigoloff joined Republic Corp. and was elected president and chief executive the following year. After embarking on a turnaround, he went to Daylin Inc. in 1974, where did the same thing. Following three years as chief operating officer at Kaufman and Broad Inc., Sigoloff went over to Wickes.

“His strength as a manager is that he has the ability to consume enormous amounts of information,” said Sitrick. “He surrounds himself with people who have the same work ethic as he does. At Wickes, we had Saturday-morning staff meetings every Saturday.”

Sigoloff left Wickes when the company was acquired in 1988, after a failed buyout effort by management. He has since formed his own consulting firm, Sigoloff & Associates Inc., and teaches a course in crisis management at the UCLA Anderson School.

“I’m fascinated with the diverse personalities of the students,” said Sigoloff. “It’s immensely stimulating because you get this tremendous amount of energy, and the different views and fabulous discussion. It’s a great learning experience for them, and for me. I feel very good about imparting the wisdom of all those years of somebody else’s trouble.”