In a class of his own
Dutch tycoon to drop $20M on East Bay media school
Dutch tycoon is bankrolling a 11 new media" college in Emeryville.
Eckart Wintzen, 59, is plowing between $10 million and $20 million into the new school, Ex'pression Center for New Media. It will operate in a 65,000-square-foot building Wintzen bought from Sybase for about $7 million. The building is on Sybase's campus and became available because of the software maker's slide.
The school will have $7.5 million worth of digital and audio sound equipment when the first class of 60 students starts classes on Jan. 11. By the end of 1999, school President Gary Platt hopes to have 264 students. He's currently running radio and print ads to attract high school grads.
Wintzen made his fortune when he sold his shares in BSO/Origin, a $700 million Netherlands applications software company, to Philips in 1996. Working from a medieval castle in the Dutch countryside, he has since built an eccentric portfolio of 15 companies that includes the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream franchise in the Benelux countries.
The school is Wintzen's second U.S.based business and part of his vision to help forge a sustainable world economy that uses broadband technology and new media. Entertainment's powerful global pull attracted Wintzen to Platt's new media school concept. They considered opening in Los Angeles before deciding on the Bay Area.
"People in the film world said to move up north to be near Pixar, Lucas and Wired, so it's no coincidence we are here," Wintzen said. "This school will become a model, otherwise I will have failed in my mission."
Wintzen wants the school to be selfsustaining and has told Platt, "you don't have to make a lot of money, just don't lose a lot."
Students will pay $25,700 to $27,700 for an intense 14-month program that emphasizes six hours a day in sound and visual labs and just three hours in classrooms. The state of California issued the school a temporary operating permit on Sept. 14 to operate as a private, post-secondary vocational school. Graduates will receive a diploma; 85 percent of them must get jobs in their field within six months of graduation if the school is to get its license. The school will compete against four-year colleges that offer multimedia courses, such as San Francisco State.
The visual media curriculum offers classes in 3-D modeling, animation, digital effects for film, video and Internet. The sound curriculum includes music recording, sound effects and live sound. A 200-seat theater is being built for performances, as is a garage studio, within earshot of 1-80.
Wintzen is gutting the building and sparing little expense. This week workers were ripping out Sybase's carpets and fixtures as New York-based architect and acoustical designer, John Storyk, is designing the building. Storyk has designed over 800 studios, including Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland in the 1960s, and will teach an acoustics course.
The Bay Area is experiencing an explosion in multimedia education the last two years with at least six schools offering certificate programs. San Francisco State was the first and is still the largest, with over 2,000 students in its adult education program that costs $9,000 for a two-year course. Its director, Christopher Marler, expects Ex'pression to be competitive, but said his school's depth of faculty, industry affiliations and a well-rounded curriculum give it an edge.
Wintzen has other business plans to expand his Bay Area presence. He is negotiating for a stake in two Bay Area companies in the new media field who need management help, which he declined to name. His other U.S. venture is called Advanced Immuni.T a biopharmacology company doing AIDS research working with peptides.
Wintzen also has an environmental bent, which has led him to make grants to save mountain gorillas through the Dian Fossey Foundation. Green Wheels is a Wintzen-backed car lease company that takes a co-op approach, charging owners only on usage. He believes industrialized GNP growth is creating mostly scrap, not the essentials for living, and wants less wasted transportation through improved communication.
"I'm an organic thinker, if it looks good I'll do it. I believe new media will change the world for the better," said the blue jean-clad Wintzen.