October 2020

A Conversation with Hayne Shumate

 

Hayne Shumate

SVP Internet Business

Mouser Electronics

The Basics

How many years have you been with your current company? 12 years

First job? JHS Teacher in Brooklyn with Teach for America

Where were you born? Ft Meade, Maryland

Where did you grow up? New Orleans / Houston

 

Corporate Perspective

What is your corporation doing to ease the pain for universities during online learning?

We have seen a lot of institutional purchasing transition to home delivery during everyone’s work-from-home regimen.  This has been true corporately as well as in education.  Supporting unit quantities and low-cost shipping allows professors and students to get components directly, quickly and safely.

 

What has been your personal or your company’s biggest challenge, or most significant achievement since the pandemic? 

Since Mouser has been a Direct-To-Consumer company since the beginning, our interactions with our customers have changed less than our relationships to our employees.  Our challenge has been to maintain continuous effective operations while transitioning 1000 employees to their homes in dozens of countries around the world. 

We have nearly 1000 warehouse workers who, of course, cannot work from home.  We had to reconfigure our warehouse so that it is less efficient, but employees can be safely spaced.  I am knocking on wood, but so far we believe that we have had ZERO virus transmission on our campus.

 

What do you want the academic community to know or understand about your company?

Mouser has invested heavily over the last 10 years so that now we have more SKUs on the shelf than any other company.  Our goal is to have every component you need for your project.  Everything ships today.

 

If you had to choose another profession, what would you choose?

Race car driver, fighter pilot, novelist.  Duh.

 

Was there a defining moment in your life that made you choose ECE as a profession?

I became and electronics hobbyist in high school.  I loved listening to music, and I had friends who had inherited hi-fi gear from their dads.  I subscribed to Audio Advisor and Speaker Builder magazines and began building amps and speakers.  I guess it all started listening to the Dark Side of the Moon on Herman’s dad’s custom 10-foot-tall speakers. smiley

 

Beyond the Desk

What would you tell your 18 year-old self?

Worry less and maybe risk more.

 

Philosophy of life in a nutshell?

See author Yuval Noah Harari.  This guy explains being human like Hawking explains physics.  If I am honest, I am embarrassed by how much I have been influenced by them both.

 

Favorite movie? Why?

Blade Runner(1982 not 2017).  The movie made such strong use of cinematics and music that it transported you.  I couldn’t sleep when I got home.