Issa Secures An American Legacy
January 2000
The American dream could have been adopted from Darrell Issa's life.
Founder of Directed Electronics Inc. (DEI), Chairman of the Board of CEA's Executive Committee, President of the Washington, DC-based American Task Force for Lebanon and Chairman of the Lincoln Club of San Diego, a group working to promote the Republican party in California, Issa was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to working class immigrant parents in 1953. After 10 years in the U.S. Army, having obtained the rank of Captain, Issa and his wife, Katharine, invested their entire life savings of $7,000 into Directed Electronics; it became incorporated in 1982.
Because he personifies the American dream and has dedication much of his life's work to the consumer electronics industry, Dealerscope is honored to name Darrell Issa to its Hall of Fame.
Issa got into the auto security industry because he had been working as a supplier for a customer who went bankrupt. He decided to answer the market directly. But another more serious influence stems from Issa's personal life.
"My brother's a convicted car thief, so it created an odd situation," he explained, solemnly. "I felt I could do something about it."
Over the past two decades, Issa has grown DEI into an $80 million business. And in that time he has seen the business change drastically.
"In the years since 1980, we've gone from a security industry to a convenience and security industry," he said.
But Issa doesn't want to stop there. His goal is to "pass the $100 million mark next year." He continued, "I would like to broaden the number of categories offered by Directed and supply my customer base with as many products as I can."
DEI already added mobile audio products to its line-up. Expect to see navigation and mobile entertainment from Directed, Issa said. Some may be at this month's CES, others will not be introduced until later.
While there are many things Issa attributes to his success, he said he feels his constant re-investment in the company and the dedication to the mobile security industry in general are probably the most influential.
"The only secret Directed has had in its success in the auto security industry was that we assumed the business would be here forever," he confided. "We acted like it was a long-term investment."
Other companies, he explained, act as though they must introduce new product as soon as possible. Directed, on the otherhand, did not rush product introductions but concentrated on the quality of those products.
Founder of Directed Electronics Inc. (DEI), Chairman of the Board of CEA's Executive Committee, President of the Washington, DC-based American Task Force for Lebanon and Chairman of the Lincoln Club of San Diego, a group working to promote the Republican party in California, Issa was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to working class immigrant parents in 1953. After 10 years in the U.S. Army, having obtained the rank of Captain, Issa and his wife, Katharine, invested their entire life savings of $7,000 into Directed Electronics; it became incorporated in 1982.
Because he personifies the American dream and has dedication much of his life's work to the consumer electronics industry, Dealerscope is honored to name Darrell Issa to its Hall of Fame.
Issa got into the auto security industry because he had been working as a supplier for a customer who went bankrupt. He decided to answer the market directly. But another more serious influence stems from Issa's personal life.
"My brother's a convicted car thief, so it created an odd situation," he explained, solemnly. "I felt I could do something about it."
Over the past two decades, Issa has grown DEI into an $80 million business. And in that time he has seen the business change drastically.
"In the years since 1980, we've gone from a security industry to a convenience and security industry," he said.
But Issa doesn't want to stop there. His goal is to "pass the $100 million mark next year." He continued, "I would like to broaden the number of categories offered by Directed and supply my customer base with as many products as I can."
DEI already added mobile audio products to its line-up. Expect to see navigation and mobile entertainment from Directed, Issa said. Some may be at this month's CES, others will not be introduced until later.
While there are many things Issa attributes to his success, he said he feels his constant re-investment in the company and the dedication to the mobile security industry in general are probably the most influential.
"The only secret Directed has had in its success in the auto security industry was that we assumed the business would be here forever," he confided. "We acted like it was a long-term investment."
Other companies, he explained, act as though they must introduce new product as soon as possible. Directed, on the otherhand, did not rush product introductions but concentrated on the quality of those products.
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July 23, 2003
California Recall Backer Feels Heat
By CHARLIE LEDUFF
Most Californians have never heard of Darrell Issa, the millionaire congressman who is bankrolling the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis. But chances are, many know his voice.
Before he embarked on a second career in politics, Mr. Issa, a conservative Republican from San Diego, made a $100 million fortune in the car-alarm business. That was his recorded voice on the Viper alarm system warning the interloper and stray dog alike to ''please step away from the car.''
''That's me,'' said Mr. Issa, raising his eyebrows, while sitting in his sparse campaign headquarters along the loop of John Wayne International Airport in Orange County, nothing on his desk but potato chips and a diet soda. ''That made me a celebrity, sort of.''
It also made him the money that allowed him to pour millions into his political career, including $1.6 million into the effort to remove the Democratic governor from the Statehouse and insert himself in it.
And it provides a tasty backdrop for his opponents who are looking for ways to discredit the man who has brought California to the brink of this extraordinary political moment.
Because try as he might to step away from the car, Mr. Issa is bombarded at every turn with calls for an explanation to those nagging questions about two arrests for car theft in his youth.
''This stuff is 30 years old,'' said Mr. Issa, dressed in a blue polo shirt and khakis, his hair combed and parted with tonic, not hair spray as preferred by political veterans.
Such is the state of California politics. Already $38 billion in the red, the state is expected to have to finance a $30 million referendum on a governor who was just elected last November. On the same ballo