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.