Joseph Mazin: Novel CEO

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Joseph Mazin: Novel CEO
Flamemaster Chief Executive Joseph Mazin with his novel

Joseph Mazin, born in Baghdad, became a U.S. citizen, but not the traditional way: He and his family got their papers through an act of Congress. That’s emblematic of the kind of money and power once held by Mazin’s father, who built a fortune as a merchant and entertainment mogul in Iraq. The Jewish family fled the country because of growing anti-Semitism and wound up first in New York and then Los Angeles. His father’s fortune gradually evaporated and Mazin, always a movie buff, put himself through college working at the Pantages Theatre, May Co. and his family’s Hollywood coffee shop. After serving in the Navy, he worked as an insurance underwriter, but his attention was always on the stock market. Even before graduating from Cal State Northridge, he put together a group of investors and started investing in public companies. Eventually, he started taking over companies. That’s how he came to be chief executive of Flamemaster Corp., a Pacoima company that makes sealants and coatings for Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corp. and other aircraft makers. All the details, from corporate board politics to Securities and Exchange Commission regulations on soliciting proxy votes, can be found in “The Dream Master,” a semi-autobiographical novel Mazin self-published this summer. Mazin met with the Business Journal at his Pacoima office to talk about the book, his father and trying to buy the movie “The Ten Commandments.”

Question: How autobiographical is your book?

Answer: The book is a novel, but it’s based on my experiences.

So, mostly true, but names changed to protect the innocent?

Not only that, but combining some things. Poetic license. I took from this one and took from this one and that’s how I arrived at it. But it’s pretty accurate. A lot of the litigation issues and the court stuff is pretty, pretty accurate.

Tell me about it.

The Allbrite Corp. in the book was based on my experiences with Altius Corp. That company was split up. There was a fight within the organization between the CEO and his board. The CEO was fired. The two groups, the CEO and the board members, both came to me to try and make a deal.

When was all this?

I was on the board and involved in 1976, but actually taking over and running it was the first day of 1979.

You were still pretty young then, in your early 30s. How did you take to suddenly being chief executive?

I did have a couple corporations I started. They were small, they were investment corporations, but I did have an inkling. And you learn from the mistakes of others. You look at what they’re doing right and wrong and try to avoid what they did wrong. That was my process.

Flamemaster makes sealants for aircraft; Altius made metal products. Was it difficult to come in and run companies in industries you lacked experience in?

It’s business. You’re still dealing with raw materials, labor, political issues. There are some variances, but business is business.

When did you go from Altius to Flamemaster?

1984 As you gain success, as you get to a certain level, more people come to you. After I’d been at Altius for a few years, a divergent group of investors at Flamemaster approached me and said this is a situation you need to get involved in.

What was the situation?

The CEO was borrowing a lot of money from the company. It was a tiny company and it had a big chunk of its capital tied up in the form of loans to this guy. It was another acqusition I went after.

Early in the book, you talk about a movie studio that had executives who were spending too much money. Was that based on the Flamemaster CEO?

No, that was another company, a movie studio. We did have a proxy fight for that one as well. We were unsuccessful, but we got a good education.

Parts of the book, especially the back story of the main character’s family, seem too detailed to be made up.

That’s all real.

Even the parts about the relationship between the father and the prime minister of Iraq?

The prime minister’s sister was at my parents’ house every day. (Then-Prime Minister) Nuri al-Said was a close friend of my dad’s. All that is accurate.

The father’s name in the book is Samson Naquash. What was your father’s real name?

Sion Mazin.

Tell me about him.

He was big in the nightclub scene in Baghdad. He’s the one who imported a lot of the entertainment for the nightclubs. He was the guy to be around. He had a lot of power. Harry Truman gave two Cadillacs to the Iraqi government and my dad got one of them.

You were born in Iraq, but you grew up in the U.S. Why did your parents leave the country?

After Israeli independence, there were a lot of nasty things going on in the Arab countries with the Jews. It’s just like what’s going on now in Egypt with the Christians.

They came to New York and started a hosiery shop. Why hosiery?

The Iraqi Jewish community in New York, they controlled all the lingerie and hosiery shops. That was their big thing. I have no idea why. I guess in Iraq, in the Muslim world, those things were kind of no-nos.

When did your family move to Los Angeles?

We moved out with the Dodgers, 1958. My mom was having issues with the cold weather and my dad wasn’t doing that well businesswise. Gaining citizenship was an expensive process, between the lawyers and the senators and the congressmen to get the bill passed.

I assumed that part of the book, getting citizenship through an act of Congress, was made up.

No, it was an act of Congress, and signed by the president. That cost a pretty penny. That’s how my dad was. He comes to the U.S., he thinks things work the same here as they did in Iraq, so he goes straight to the White House.

What did your father do in Los Angeles?

He tried to get into the real estate business and had a coffee shop for a while. He wasn’t successful. It was basically a struggle all the way. He didn’t do well financially.

That must have been tough for him, after being such a big man in Baghdad.

It was … definitely.

How did that manifest itself?

Whenever he got together with family or old friends, he had to play the big guy, even though he didn’t have money. He had to be the guy he used to be. He’d never let anybody pay for anything.

If he was struggling, how did that work?

He would deprive himself to make a show with somebody else. And then he hurt about it afterwards. Even when I was working and helping them out a little with some money, he would take or borrow money from me just to put on a facade. He didn’t want to show he was struggling.

Sounds like having two different fathers.

Yeah. I remember when we went to England (after moving to New York), he still had a little money left. Some of the old cronies from the old Arab government who were thrown out, they saw him and they fell to the floor and they kissed his hand. I remember that as a kid. Obviously he wanted to be that guy.

Were you part of your father’s business? Did you have to work for him?

I worked at the coffee shop, and also at May Co. and at the Pantages Theatre. I was doing the buying for the coffee shop, bringing in all the supplies.

Where was it?

It was at Edgemont and Fountain, across from what’s now the Scientology building (in Hollywood). Before that, it used to be Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.

You said it was a struggle for your folks with their business. Did you enjoy working with them?

I enjoyed the coffee shop. We went there at night and we’d lock up, play the jukebox and have some ice cream.

I understand you worked three jobs in college. Was it hard to get through?

And I was in the naval reserves, too. I guess I was never one to do a lot of homework. I attended classes and I took a lot of notes, and that got me through. It was poli-sci, which was my thing anyhow, and a lot of the classes I took were things like business law. I was already involved in a lot of those business dealings, so the classes I took were basically about things I was already doing.

What do you mean?

I had already started an investment company at that time.

While you were in college?

I was 19 when I started it as an investment partnership, then I incorporated it when I was 21. You had to be 21, at that time, to do the incorporation.

Who gave a 19-year-old any money to invest?

They were also young people. I had 43 partners. But it wasn’t big money – maybe $2,000 or $1,500 (each). People in the naval reserves, a few people from college. Then I had a board of directors and they brought in people. We were probably investing around $50,000. It wasn’t big money, but in those days it was significant.

Did you make money?

Yeah, that’s how I got a following. There were some stocks I rode from a dollar and a half to $17 or $18. The fastest way to make friends and get a following is to make money for them and not ask anything in return.

What were you investing in?

Allied Artists (a movie studio) was the one that went up to $17 or $18. Commercial International we got in at around 25 or 30 cents and it went up to $3. There were quite a few little stocks that took off. Some of them aren’t even around anymore.

Tell me more about Flamemaster. How’s the company doing?

We bought a new facility about five years ago. It’s double the size of the one we were in before. We did that, and then the recession hit and the aerospace industry took a little bit of a hit. But we’re developing new products all the time. We’ve got another four of five new products that are coming out over the next few months. And we’re a niche market – high-performance sealants and protective coatings for the aerospace industry. We don’t have a lot of competition in the area we’re in.

You introduced me earlier to your wife and sons who work here. So Flamemaster has turned into a kind of family business?

The board kind of evolved to the point where my wife, Donna, came on board. She does our audits. It became more family oriented as the years went.

Do you enjoy having them around?

It’s tremendous. There’s nothing better. You get to see them every day and see what’s happening with them.

You’ve been at Flamemaster since 1984, with a few breaks here and there. Are you staying put now?

Yes. I’m at that age now. I’m not looking for major deals anymore.

By the way, I see the book came out this summer. Have you sold any?

I’ve got some people I work with who bought a few books. Some suppliers, an insurance brokerage, some brokers I work with bought a couple for their clients. I’ve sold a few.

Did you hope it would be a big seller?

No, it was more of a labor of love. It was to tell a story. Perseverance. Not giving up. There’s a little bit of everything in there. But it’s basically not to give up. Time after time, I was slapped down and slapped down, but you get up again.

I know you’re a movie buff and you tried to take over a movie studio. You never tried to write a screenplay or anything?

No. As a kid, I loved to go watch movies. At one point, I tried to buy “The Ten Commandments” from Paramount.

And do what with it?

That was part of my investment company. One of the things I got people excited about was, let’s invest in motion pictures and music. Part of our intent was to acquire some rights to either music or motion pictures. Eventually, we decided to go after this company through stock. So instead of trying to buy films from the studio, we tried to go after the studio. We were unsuccessful, but I got an education and I got a big following. I got people on my side when I went after something else.

The main character in your book becomes a movie mogul. Do I sense a failed Hollywood ambition?

(Laughs.) Possibly.

Joseph Mazin

TITLE: Chief Executive

COMPANY: Flamemaster Corp.

BORN: Baghdad; 1946.

EDUCATION: B.A., political science, Cal State Northridge.

CAREER TURNING POINT: Taking over Altius Corp., a metal products company. “Before that, I was the guy that needed help. After that, I was the guy everybody came to for help.”

MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE: Father, Sion Mazin.

PERSONAL: Wife, Donna; two adult sons, David and Joshua; 6-month-old grandson, Jordan.

ACTIVITIES: Angels fan, political junkie. “We used to go to the movies all the time, but with a new grandson, that takes a lot of babysitting time.”

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