William C. W. Mow

William C. W. Mow (Traditional Chinese: 毛昭寰) was the chairman and CEO of Bugle Boy Industries. He was born in Hangchow, China in 1936. His father, Mow Pang Tsu, was a Lt. General in the Nationalist Chinese Airforce. In May 1945, Pang Tsu was appointed as a member of the Sixth Kuomintang Central Executive Committee and eventually became the national government's representatives in the United States Aviation Committee and the United Nations Security Council. In 1949 his wife, Wong Ay Chuan, and five of his six sons (Van, Maurice, Donald, Harry and William) joined General Mow in Washington, DC, where they lived in diplomatic housing. His oldest son, David, staid in Taiwan and served in the National Air Force. In the early 50th, Pang Tsu was involved in a highly public embezzlement scandal that pitted him against the Chiang Kai-shek government in Taiwan. He fled to Mexico and left the family behind in the US. Forced to leave the diplomatic housing in Washington, DC, William together with his mother and 4 brothers settled in Great Neck, NY. There they opened a small restaurant, the Yangtze River Cafe.

William C.W. Mow earned BSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic, MSEE from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and PhD from Purdue University. After earning his Ph.D., Mow spent the years from 1967 to 1969 working for Litton Industries as a program manager before forming his first business in 1969, a computer-controlled instrumentation firm called Macrodata. Macrodata designed new ways to test large-scale integrated computer chips. By 1974, Macrodata had annual sales of $12 million. In the mid–1970s, Mow sold Macrodata to Cutler-Hammer, a conglomerate located in Milwaukee. He remained on as chairman and CEO but had to resign after the new owners accused him of concealing $2 million worth of losses. Later, in 1988, a California court cleared Mow of any accusations and found that Culter-Hammer had actually been responsible for concealing the sales loss.

In 1976 he began exploring wholesale and retail clothing sales. Mow started Buckaroo International Inc., a boutique store, in 1977. In September 1980, Mow renamed the company Bugle Boy Industries and narrowed its focus to jeans and casual pants ("parachute pants") appealing mainly to young males. By 1991, Bugle Boy had broadened its strategy to appeal to young women, adults, and children. Bugle Boy’s sales skyrocketed from less than $10 million in sales during the early 80th to almost $190 million in 1987, and $300 million in the early 90th. In 1996 Mow relocated the company’s Hong Kong office into a special economic zone in China. Mow made it clear that he wanted to capture the Chinese market and set a goal of establishing 1,000 retail outlets in China. By 1997 Bugle Boy had annual sales of $500 million and had a one year sales growth of 5.2 percent. The company employed 2,200 people in all, including 400 people in California. Bugle Boy products were sold in more than 7,000 retail stores, as well as in Bugle Boy’s own discount outlets. By 1998, Bugle Boy was expanding into new markets in China and opening stores there. In 2001, Bugle Boy fell on hard times and closed all 215 of its U.S. outlet stores in an agreement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Their store at Gurnee Mills remained open to sell off remaining inventory. Eventually the company was sold for $68.8 million to Schottenstein Stores Corp., which has large stakes in American Eagle Outfitters and Value City Department Stores. As of 2015, the Bugle Boy brand is no longer in use.

William C.W. Mow married twice and fathered two children, one from each marriage. His grandson's name is Sam Goodman. He received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from Purdue University. His oldest brother, Harry, first worked for the RAND Corporation and later formed Century West Development Inc. As CEO and chairman of the board he led the developed of many real estate projects in the greater Los Angeles area and across the country. Another brother, Donald Mow worked for several architectural firms in New York City and was involved in the construction of the TWA terminal at JFK airport, before opening his own architectural design firm in Pleasantville, NY. His two younger brothers made careers in academia. Van C. Mow is a renowned Professor of Biomechanics at Columbia University, while Maurice Mow was a Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering California State University Chico, Chico, CA.