We sat down with Ron Pollack, short-seller and hedge fund manager of the former Dancing Bear (net short) Fund, and asked him about some of his experiences as a short seller.  Ron recounted a story of a company that he said was an example of a “technology hype story”.  Years ago there was a laser company that supposedly had developed a better ophthalmic laser for correcting various vision disorders.  This type of product had been the subject of a lot of controversy at the time due to the relatively low sales volume of the industry leader.  One question had to do with the entire product category:  since the industry leader had only been given FDA approval for certain limited indications, it was too early to say whether the category would ever live up to expectations that it would become the solution-of-choice for nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, etc.  For the laser company, however, there was an even bigger question:  Did they have a viable product?  They said that they did: one that was smaller, less expensive, safer and more effective than those of the industry leader and other competitors.  But, in spite of the hype, the laser company had yet to provide clinical data that supported their claims.  In fact, at one of the meetings of ophthalmologists, the company was openly chastised by skeptical doctors tired of hearing all sorts of promises from the company with no proof.  The company had said that they had widespread success with their laser in China. Well, Ron’s analyst found a leading Chinese doctor who sat on key government councils, and got a much different story.  The Chinese doctor told the analyst that many of the company’s lasers that had been sent to China were either sitting in boxes, unused and unpaid for, or were being sent back.  To top it all off, the laser company was being sued by the industry leader and another competitor for patent infringement.  It took a while for the hype to yield to truth; but eventually it did, the stock cracked and the company was delisted. 

When Ron was putting together his Vail fundraiser for the rescue workers of 9-11, he got a number of the local leaders and long-term residents to help: Vail mayor Rod Slifer and his business partner Harry Frampton (slifersmithframpton.com; eastwestpartners.com); skiing legend Pepi Gramshammer (www.pepis.com); Vail co-founder Dick Hauserman, etc.  He even approached President Gerald R. Ford. Unfortunately, President Ford couldn’t attend, but Ron was invited up to his house in Beaver Creek to visit. (The secret service must have missed the fact that Ron was a well-known short seller when they cleared him. Or perhaps they decided to overlook it, since Ron was co-chairman of President Ford’s re-election campaign during Ron’s sophomore year at Yale.) During his visit, they talked about the President’s career, and how it was that he wound up going into public service after graduating from Yale Law School. Ron related that he had considered doing the same after graduating from Harvard Law, but that he went to Wall Street instead. Still, Ron wondered whether or not he should someday, perhaps when he retired from the hedge fund business. President Ford then gave Ron some fatherly advice: “Don’t. Instead, just enjoy your children, make a lot of money, and keep giving to charity.” It’s advice that Ron took to heart.

In 2002, Ron Pollack and his family became part-time residents of Vail, Colorado.  Ron became involved with the Vail Valley Foundation, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to enhance and sustain the quality of life in the Vail Valley of Colorado. 

While in Vail, Ron acted as Chairman for two fund raisers for the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project.  In partnership with the Vail Valley Foundation, he sponsored a performance of the “The Guys,” at the Vilar Center for the Arts in Beaver Creek. This acclaimed play focus on a fire chief struggling to prepare eulogies for all his men who were lost at the World Trade Center. For the second, he worked with the Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival on an event held in conjunction with a performance by the New York Philharmonic at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. Both fundraisers were successful and resulted in a number of additional rescue workers being sponsored to go through the detoxification program. 

One Vail-sponsored firefighter stated after completing his detoxification program “I have regained an energy level that I haven’t had for years! My memory is back and I sleep 8 hours every night without waking up every 2 hours. I am pain free and no longer have my “WTC cough”. I am no longer angry and short tempered. For me, the program was a HUGE success! I can’t thank Ron, the Vail Valley Foundation and the staff of the project enough for this incredible gift, MY HEALTH!”