Vertical advantages make him the man to beat on the court.

Featured Employee: Terry Hardin
Sometimes a story is best told straight from the source. Terry Hardin's is definitely one of those. He comes to the UA team with extensive market experience, and sagacious life experience. As one of UA's most athletic, and tallest, employees, Terry is a menace on the UA B-ball court. Here's his tale, in his own words.

I was born and raised in the central California town of Tulare, at a time when the dairy cows (at least in Tulare) outnumbered the people by a considerable margin. Like most small-town kids in that era, I spent a good deal of my time pursuing ways to amuse myself and my friends. That primarily involved sports and music. We were fortunate that Tulare had a long history of great high school music programs, and being in the marching band was actually a "cool" thing to do--mainly because it allowed you to travel to exotic locations like Long Beach and Disneyland. There is nothing like the promise of long weekend co-ed field trips to pique the interest of a bunch of hormone-poisoned teenagers.

I am one of, if not the only, UA employee old enough to have been able to make immediate use of the tremendous rush of inspiration that hit the youth of the world when the Beatles arrived in 1963. Within months of the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan, I got together with some of my high school buddies and formed a rock band. The Lunatik Frynge (yes that was how we spelled it) rode the '60s British invasion for all it was worth until the military draft took a couple of our guys and provided them with extended paid vacations in Southeast Asia. I left Tulare, just graduating from college with an AA in Fine Art. (You can tell I was a practical young man!) I then moved on to sample the bliss-filled Summer of Love in San Francisco (we're talking June 1967). Oh yeah, I was also enrolled in the art department for the Fall '67 semester at SF State College. I received a terrific education in the two years I lived in SF. Most of it came from being in a band and hanging out on the fringes of the "big time" SF rock scene. One of the main things I learned was I wasn't ready for a life in the big city, and I moved back to Tulare. I renewed friendships with the local musician community that included guys like Tom Johnston, who went on to found the Doobie Brothers; and Steve Perry, who had a nice long run with Journey and a fairly successful solo career. The talent pool wasn't wide, but it was pretty deep in Tulare County. Steve and I actually performed together in a college musical theater production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown as two of Molly's brothers. That's right, the "all-singing, all-dancing" musical theatre experience can be yours if you are ready and willing to work your tail off for three months.

Alas, however, I couldn't resist the allure of the "big city" and eventually moved to Fresno where I became part owner of an art gallery, got married for the first time, played in rock bands, and generally lived the hippy/artist lifestyle. Eventually, the gallery closed, the marriage dissolved, and a couple of the guys I was playing with moved to Santa Cruz. So after a couple of visits to this musicians' Mecca, I too made the move, the day after my twenty-fifth birthday.

The intervening years have been filled with the stuff of life, and I have always counted the move to Santa Cruz in the top three best decisions I have ever made. I lived the hand-to-mouth existence of a musician the first few years here, but that was actually perceived as somewhat glamorous in those days. Besides playing music, I made a living working as an orderly on the SC County neuro-psychiatric ward, a locked facility that was primarily responsible for the intake and fourteen-day evaluation of anyone deemed too "crazy" to go to jail. The clientele was not that different from those folks I would encounter playing at the numerous clubs and private parties around the area in those days. Okay, the hospital gowns were a fashion departure, but not much of one; remember we're talking about the early '70s in Santa Cruz.

After knocking around the local circuit with the acoustic trio Joaquin, my bandmates and I were asked to join the Artichoke Band (a.k.a. the 'Chokes) when a few of their members decided to leave the band. The 'Chokes were already arguably one of the most popular bands in Santa Cruz at that time, rivaled only by the mighty Snail. The 'Chokes popularity continued and even grew after our joining forces with them, regularly selling out the Catalyst on a Saturday night, which was usually reserved for name recording acts. Big fish, small pond--the curse of any creative collaboration.

The best thing to come out of this experience was I met my beautiful and current wife, Mary and her almost-two-year-old son Skye. We became a trio fairly quickly (it was obviously meant to be), and the process of "Terry becomes an adult" began. Being a musician and artist means this process is ongoing. I have, however, held some interesting positions of employment over the ensuing years, which include sales manager for E-mu Systems, channel marketing manager for Digidesign, and sales manager for Antares. Through the years, I have also maintained my own graphic arts business, Grey Flannel Graphics, and have continued to manifest my first love of singing and playing percussion, guitar and harmonica in local bands.

All of this has provided a direct path to my current position as channel marketing manager for Universal Audio, a position I began in October 2003. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to apply my years of experience and industry knowledge to the task of growing and cultivating this wonderful entity that is Universal Audio. I have been around the block more than twice, and I can honestly say I have never worked with a group of people who are more supportive of one another while still keeping focused on the task at hand. By the way, my favorite color is chartreuse.
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Upcoming Events ...

The UA team will be over in Frankfurt Germany for Musikmesse, to be held April 6-9. Musikmesse is the biggest global musical equipment show, and UA will be exhibiting both new hardware and software products in association with our German distributor, SEA.

Not long after Musikmesse, we'll be at AES Europe, held for the first time in Barcelona, Spain, May 28-31.

From left: Bill Putnam, CEO/Founder of UA; Steve Oppenheimer, editor, Electronic Musician; Joe Bryan, UA VP of engineering; Mike Barnes, UA director of marketing

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