CEO tells students luck, passion important to success
Ed Cope
Jeff Bergman speaks2ec
Audience listens to speaker Jeff Bergman during the fall 2011 CEO Conversations Wednesday at Maggie Hardy Magerko Auditorium in The Community Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
Ed Cope
Jeff Bergman of Wexford (top photo), international business consultant and founder/chief executive officer of SMT Health Services, speaks to students and some faculty members (bottom photo) during the fall CEO Conversations series at Maggie Hardy Magerko Auditorium in The Community Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
Jeff Bergman said one of his worst moments in business was when he learned he and his partners had to scrape up a $660,000 bank payment for a mobile CT scan unit they couldn’t locate.
“None of us was that fluid to come up with $660,000,” Bergman told an audience at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“But when you have no options, you dig in and get it done.”
The final speaker in the CEO Conversations program at Penn State Fayette for fall 2011, Bergman shared his business insight as an entrepreneur over the past 35 years.
Bergman said four words that have helped him in his career are education, experience, luck and passion.
In 1987, Bergman founded SMT Health Services Inc. where he served as the chairman, president and chief executive officer. He engineered the process of taking the company public in March 1992. SMT was sold to Apollo Management L.P. in September 1997. Bergman remained part of management with Apollo through 2000.
After he graduated from Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh, Bergman sold mining equipment and then real estate before entering the health care field.
The opportunity to invest in the mobile CT scan came along. “I knew nothing about the equipment or the medical imaging industry.” However, not to far into the venture, he and the other partners were informed by the bank that no payments had been made on the unit for six months.
“And we had no idea where it was,” Bergman said. “We finally found it in Brooklyn, N.Y. We had to go to court to get it back.”
It was more than a learning experience, he said.
“As I got more involved in health care, I found it to be even better than being in real estate. I started my own company,” he said.
“We felt we could do better in medical imaging, be more efficient and our company has been the most profitable of any in that industry.”
Admitting there have been “some things that were not so successful along the way,” Bergman said he has had many successes.
In order to do that, he advised, “You go to people who are smarter than you and seek their advice. Take your education at Penn State and let it help you build a foundation for the rest of your life.”
Success, he added, “is nothing more than luck.
“Things today are changing so quickly they are creating tremendous opportunities. There are many different ways to attack a certain industry, to learn about it,” he said.
Bergman advised the students to also “have a passion” for what they do.
“I have been surrounded by high-energy winners. But each champion is dissatisfied with his own accomplishments. He wants to do better. He never looks back. They never just sit on what they are doing now. Nothing in this world is accomplished without passion.”
Bergman also officiates for the National Football League (NFL), beginning that part of his life by refereeing high school football games.
He has served as a line judge for the NFL since 1991. He also served on the board of directors of the National Football League Referees Association for 14 years.
In addition, Bergman was on the board of the NFL Referees Charities for 10 years and helped raise more than $900,000 for charities. He has been active in negotiations between the referees and the NFL and serves as president of the referees association.
When asked if his business and NFL skills have intersected, Bergman said they do so “every day.
“It’s how you interact with people. The people (in the NFL, including officials and players) are just like you and me and extremely passionate about what they do.”
Currently Bergman serves as a consultant to various domestic companies for manufacturing and product development in the LED light technology industry with facilitates in Xi’an and Beijing, China.
In addition to his consulting, Bergman has developed more than 215 acres in the western Pennsylvania area.
In 2010, Robert Morris University honored Bergman with the Alumni Heritage Award, the university’s highest alumnus award that is presented annually for distinguished service and accomplishments.
The program featured a presentation by Bergman about his background and experiences as an entrepreneur followed by a conversation with a panel of students and questions from the audience.
The program culminated with refreshments and a “meet and greet” providing students with an opportunity to interact with Bergman.
Student members of the panel discussion were Brent Lint, an senior who is a business major; freshman Matt Spaw, an engineering major; Heather Hunchuck, an animal science major and a sophomore; and senior Audra Tewell, also an engineering major.