A technology entrepreneur whose software and ingenuity set the tone for industrial advancement in the Roanoke and New River valleys and abroad has died.
Bonz Hart, founder and longtime CEO of Meridium Inc., died Tuesday after battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer for two months.
Hart
The Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC), of which Hart was the first technology entrepreneur president, shared the news in a news release.
“Hart will always hold a special place in the hearts of many people in our region,” the statement read.
Russ Ellis, president of gNext Labs and an RBTC Hall of Fame member, said Hart was “an inspirational leader in our regional technology ecosystem, a patient mentor to many and a loyal friend to all who knew him.”
“His premature passing leaves a huge void in our lives and is a painful loss to all who knew him,” Ellis said in an email Thursday.
Roanoke Regional Chamber President and CEO Joyce Waugh said the impact Hart had on the valley’s business community was a “true inspiration.”
“In many respects, he was a pioneer, not only in his industry, but in just starting a new business, and working all over the world,” Waugh said in an interview Thursday.
Hart began his technology career as a serial entrepreneur and consultant, working for software companies in the U.S. and Canada,” the RBTC said. “His reputation and expertise prompted DuPont to recruit him for their information technology products group in the late 1980s.”
In an office over his Bedford County garage in 1993, Hart founded Meridium. From there, the firm expanded to downtown Roanoke’s former Wachovia Tower, then in 2011 to a rehabilitated multistory and highly visible building beside Interstate 581’s Elm Avenue exit to downtown Roanoke.
The company builds software for the oil and gas industry “with the vision of helping the world’s asset-intensive industries protect people, our planet, and profits through effective asset performance management software and services,” RBTC said.
“It’s just really phenomenal to even envision making a product that could have these kinds of controls and help businesses all over the world,” Waugh said. “I just marvel at people that have those kinds of minds and then do something about it.”
Meridium grew by reinvesting its revenue, never taking in outside capital, until 24% of its ownership was sold to GE Digital, a division of General Electric, in 2014.
“Entrepreneurs have to take a lot of risks,” Waugh said, “and [Hart] did what he needed to do and took a lot of risks, not knowing whether his company would go as he expected or not.”
“The company grew to 500 full-time employees and contractors, with headquarters in Roanoke and offices in Houston, London, Madrid, Dubai, Bangalore (India), Singapore, and Australia,” the RBTC said.
The company helped “over 1,200 global sites in over 80 countries protect their production assets by predicting and preventing their physical assets from failing.”
In 2016, GE Digital purchased the rest of Meridium “for an enterprise value of $500 million,” RBTC said.
Then in January 2017, four months after the company’s purchase, Hart retired at the age of 60.
As a keynote speaker at an RBTC TechNite awards banquet the following April, Hart said his decision to step down as CEO wasn’t planned, but it had to happen do that Meridium could grow.
“If I really cared about the team, I needed to replace myself,” Hart said. “Not what I wanted to do. … But if you’re committed to the purpose, committed to the opportunity, those decisions get a lot easier — even if they become personal.”
Hart announced his cancer diagnosis in a July post on his CaringBridge web page.
In May, he noticed “something didn’t feel right” in his abdomen. On July 9, doctors recommended he go to the emergency room.
“The doctor pulls up a stool and says, ‘We know what the source of your pain is. You have pancreatic cancer and it has spread to your liver, making it a stage 4+ and not a treatable cancer. We need to focus on pain management,’” Hart relayed.
“I am so thankful this didn’t happen in my forties-fifties,” Hart’s post continued. He was writing from a ranch on Montana, where he was supported by doctors and members of his family. “We know God’s plan is perfect, but the realization of separation from all whom I love is/will be hard.”
The most recent post on Hart’s CaringBridge web page is from one of Hart’s daughters, Kaley Hegeman. It reports Hart’s death on Sept. 6.
“After constant care by his sons and snuggles and hand-holding by his daughters, he was left alone with his beautiful wife and found the peace to pass,” Hegeman wrote. “We know he is in heaven and found all the glory that is promised. Christ carried him through this season of affliction to now be in His arms.”
“Someone who could lose it all took the chance, really did extremely well, paid people well, and gave a lot of people a chance and made our community a far better place,” Waugh said. “I think that inspiration goes a long way to encouraging others.”
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