FORBES ASAP - THE HOMELESS CEO
By John Maybury, June 1998
Twenty years ago Gerald Chamales was homeless and jobless, a
college dropout, a former foster child, "twisted like a pretzel," he says, from
alcohol and drug abuse. Then in 1979 he decided to rebuild his life. Chamales
set up a card table and started selling computer products. It wasn't an instant
success, but he struggled to make it work. And he never forgot where he came
from. Now 46, Chamales is founder and president of California-based Omni
Computer Products, which manufactures printer ribbons and recycles laser toner
cartridges (1997 revenues were nearly $26 million). Chamales hires a third of
his 250 employees, including managers, from the welfare rolls and halfway houses
of L.A. Granted, he says, not all of them work out. Only those serious about
recovery stay. But when they do, Omni fulfills a double mission: recycling people
and laser cartridges.