The Russia Years

entrepreneurial mind began to get restless and look for opportunities. In the 1980s, Darryl owned and operated Pacific Energy Corporation, the largest energy management company in California. And then the Iron Curtain came down.

“When the Iron Curtain came down, I wanted to go see what it was like in these communist countries before they got westernized,” Darryl said. “I had a friend who was a surgeon that I traveled with, and we flew into Berlin, saw the Brandenburg Gate ~ the wall was still there ~ then we went to Czechoslovakia, and we were going to drive down to the Balkan states when my friend suggested we go to Moscow. He said that next Tuesday was Mayday and we could be some of the first Americans on Red Square without a KGB escort.”

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In Russia, Darryl saw business opportunities everywhere.

“If it didn’t have to do with war, the Russians were way behind. Everything had to do with war, so their consumer products were poor ~ the communists just didn’t care about the regular population,” he said.

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The Russia Years

The meeting was with men who were sent by the vice president’s office. They represented American security interests, identified Darryl as the owner the Novosibirsk Optical Company and said that the Russians had developed some night vision technology that our defense department needed to have.

Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Optical Company. The company made binoculars and telescopes, but its biggest-selling product was night vision equipment. The company did well, and things went smoothly until Darryl was asked to take a meeting at the George Town Club.

Darryl’s company didn’t own the technology, so he couldn’t help them. After the meeting, he went back to his office.

“One of our team members said, ‘There are some men upstairs in your office, waiting for you. You’d better go see them.’ I went in, and three guys from the KGB were sitting there. And they looked like

KGB ~ leather jackets, the whole nine yards. They said, ‘Mr. Hill did you read the agreement you signed to do business in Russia?’ ~ and threw the agreement across the table at me ~ ‘You’d better read that.’ And they walked out. They didn’t need to say anything else, they made their point. How did they know when I was coming back to the office? They knew right where I was all the time, they knew about the meeting I had just had. They had only been in my office for 10 minutes, they knew when I was getting back. I went right downstairs and got my Russian partners in the Novosibirsk company on the phone, and

The Russia Years I said, ‘I will sell you my interest in the company. I know you don’t have the money right now, pay me when you can. I am out.’”

That was the end of the optics business for Darryl. But it wasn’t the end of entrepreneurship in Russia. Next up was the timber business…in Siberia.

Russia had plenty of natural resources. Darryl was asked to fly to Ulan-Ude in the republic of Buryatia. Looking out of the airplane during a five hour-flight, all he saw were trees. Nothing but trees. And he was told that 70 percent of the world’s soft wood is in Russia.

When the plane landed, they toured timber fields and found rusted equipment everywhere ~

The Russia Years cutters, grapplers, trucks, tractors, loading equipment.

“I said, what happened? They told me that under the communist government, they just followed orders. None of the various republics had money after the change in how the country was run. I asked them about exporting to other countries; they didn’t know how to sell to other countries. I said, I do!”

They formed a joint venture called NorthStar International. Darryl made a deal with the Buryat government that they would be 50/50 partners ~ he would provide the marketing and capital, and they would provide the manpower, trees and equipment.

The Buryats planned an international deal to bring in new technology and machines to do all the work.

“I said, the last thing you need is labor-saving devices because you have through-the-roof unemployment; people are sitting there who need work,” Darryl said. “Use the equipment that is there, that they know how to run. Buy chainsaws, and put people to work. And we did just that. We put them all back to work.”

Darryl became a hero of sorts in the middle of Siberia. They held a dinner in his honor that Boris Yeltsin sent a representative to attend.

But being the honored guest has its drawbacks.

“They brought out a sheep’s head ~ a delicacy reserved for the guest of honor,” Darryl said. “I learned early on when traveling that you should always try to eat people’s food the way they make it; it’s hospitality, and it’s important to them.”

But when the head came out, eyes and all, Darryl thought quickly and gave an impromptu speech, deciding to share the honor, and the head, with all the workers. The people loved it, and Darryl’s stomach rested easier.

An entrepreneurial mind always looks for opportunities, and Darryl’s life and career have been defined by seeing opportunities and knowing when and how to act. NorthStar was selling pulp to a pulp mill in China, and the company was asked if it wanted to buy the mill.

One of NorthStar’s biggest customers was Ideal Packaging, the largest packaging manufacturer in China. They wanted to get into the U.S. market with their boxes ~ from cereal boxes to shoe boxes.

Darryl said that NorthStar would buy the mill, but in return he wanted exclusive distribution for Ideal’s products in North America. Ideal Packaging was interested but wanted to meet face to face.

He met the owner of the company in a city called Hangzhou (Hangchow), two hours south of Shanghai by car.

“They picked me up and took me to a frog restaurant. All they sold was frog ~ not frog legs, the whole frog ~ and I ate everything and enjoyed their hospitality” Darryl said. “The next day, they come and get me and take me to the big boss’s office. He said, ‘I heard you really enjoyed your meal. I am going to have my chef fix us a special lunch today, mud hen.’ It was a duck that lays its eggs in the mud. After lunch, he hands me a box and says, ‘By the way, here is your care package.’ In it was all the paperwork, all contracts signed, everything I asked for. I am convinced that that dinner and lunch had an impact on the owner’s attitude. He wanted to know who I was and how I would be to do business with.”

During his years focused on international business, Darryl became the first American to enter the forestry business in Russia and the first American to establish a business venture in the Buryatia region of Siberia. He was the first African American to own a major business in Russia. And, in his joint venture with Ideal Packaging, he became one of the earliest small American businesses to form a partnership with a major Chinese enterprise.

What is Darryl doing now? Where did his entrepreneurial vision take him next, and how did he end up on the Eastern Shore? Next month’s issue will tell the final part of the story.

Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-profit organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.