Source: Deseret News — "US Synthetic got rocky start" (1998)

Summary

A June 1998 business profile of Louis M. Pope, written while US Synthetic was in the middle of its growth run. It is by some distance the best account the corpus holds of how the company started, and it is the source that connects US Synthetic to MegaDiamond by a specific mechanism — Louis Pope ran MegaDiamond's manufacturing plant for five years before founding his own company — rather than by the vague family resemblance the other sources offer.

It also records a near-death experience the company's own timeline elides entirely.

Useful Claims

• Louis M. Pope founded US Synthetic in Orem in April 1978, after five years managing the manufacturing plant at Megadiamond Corp, where he developed products and processes and helped design hydraulic presses. He is a Provo native with mechanical engineering and MBA degrees from BYU.
• Bill Pope, his father, was the first president of US Synthetic; Louis Pope was executive vice president and general manager. This is the detail the company's own history page omits.
• The company's original product was synthetic diamond grit for the grinding-wheel industry, not drill-bit cutters. The pivot to oil and gas came after the crisis.
• 1985 was the near-death year. Executives went unpaid, the workforce fell from 13 to six, Pope's credit cards were maxed, his house was in foreclosure, and an investor's accountant recommended bankruptcy. Pope also set up synthetic diamond plants in China and India that year.
• Pope became president and CEO in 1992. The article reports the company ranked 30th in 1995, 16th in 1996, and 25th last year among the fastest-growing companies in the United States, and calls it the top manufacturer of diamond cutters for the drilling industry.
• Pope's stated goal at the time was to be a $100 million company by 2000. Whether that happened is not established anywhere in the corpus.

Verbatim

"It hasn't been a smooth ride for Louis M. Pope since he founded US Synthetic in Orem 10 years ago, but that just makes the company's recent success all the sweeter." — Opening

"A Provo native and a holder of bachelor's (mechanical engineering) and MBA degrees from Brigham Young University, Pope learned about manufacturing synthetic industrial diamonds during the five years he managed the manufacturing plant at Megadiamond Corp, developing products and processes and helping design hydraulic presses.In April 1978, Pope went out on his own and launched US Synthetic and asked his father, Bill Pope, to come on board as president of the new company while Louis Pope served as executive vice president and general manager. The company focused on making synthetic diamond grit for the grinding-wheel industry." — Body

"In 1985, Louis Pope set up synthetic diamond plants in China and India, but that period also marked the low point for US Synthetic when the very existence of the company was in doubt. Company executives went without paychecks, the work force was reduced from 13 to six, Pope's credit cards had been maxed out, his house was in foreclosure and an accountant of a key US Synthetic investor recommended bankrukptcy." — Body

"In 1992, he became president and CEO of the company and US Synthetic went on to become one of the fastest growing companies in the United States: 30th in 1995, 16th in 1996 and 25th last year. It also has become the top manufacturer of diamond cutters for the drilling industry. Pope plans on being a $100 million company in the year 2000." — Body

Reliability Notes

Secondary tier, and a local-business profile — a genre that takes the subject's account of his own company largely at face value. The growth rankings are almost certainly the Inc. 500 and the article does not say so; treat them as reported, not verified.

Two internal contradictions worth carrying, because they bound how precisely this source can be used.

First, the article is dated June 1998 and says Pope founded the company "10 years ago," then states in the next paragraph that he launched it in April 1978 — twenty years earlier. The 1978 date agrees with the company's own timeline and with every other source, so the "10 years" phrase is an error in the article. The wiki uses 1978.

Second, this article says the company achieved ISO 9002; the company's history page says it was the first PDC manufacturer to reach ISO 9000, in 1993. These are different standards in the same family and the wiki does not adjudicate between them; the fact page states neither as fact.

The transcription typo "bankrukptcy" is in the source and is reproduced above unaltered, as the verbatim rule requires.

Related Pages

• US Synthetic
• Source: US Synthetic Company History Page
• Source: Deseret News — Bill Pope Obituary Feature (2010)
• H. Tracy Hall's Diamond Presses