Varian Associates

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Varian Associates was a high-tech company founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first tube which could generate electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies, and other electromagnetic equipment. In 1953 the company established its headquarters in Palo Alto, California, in what has become known as the Stanford Industrial Park and under Thomas D. Sege, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) from 1981 to 1990, sales grew to exceed $1 billion per annum. In 1990 J. Tracy O'Rourke, a 1956 graduate of Auburn University, Alabama replaced Sege as CEO and was also made chairman of the board. On April 2, 1999, the company spun off its Gloucester, Massachusetts ion-implantation equipment business into Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (VSEA) and its Palo Alto based scientific instrument business into Varian, Inc. (VARI). The medical equipment business which included the manufacture of x-ray tubes in Salt Lake City, Utah renamed itself Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (VAR) and remained headquartered in Palo Alto. After the breakup O'Rourke served as VSEA's chairman.

See also

• Continental Electronics, a subsidiary from 1985 to 1990
• Communications & Power Industries, a 1995 spin-off, which includes the Varian brothers' original klystron business
• Varian Data Machines, a former division of Varian Associates that sold minicomputers

External links

• Early history of Varian Associates hosted by Communications & Power Industries, which bought Varian's electron device business in 1995
• J. Tracy O'Rourke joins Varian Associates

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