Lore Harp McGovern (née Lange-Hegermann, March 3, 1944) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist based in California.
Harp McGovern was born in Poland under German occupation and moved to the United States following high school.
[4] After attending law school for a year,[4] Harp met Carole Ely, a fellow housewife, mother and neighbor who had formerly worked as a bond trader.
They based their business around an 8K RAM board for the S-100 bus of an Altair 8800 that Lore's husband had devised the previous year.
[3] Early on, she had a meeting with an AMD representative to purchase memory chips, and after finding the price too high, she arranged a deal with Fairchild Semiconductor.
They began selling the RAM boards, cash on delivery, via mail orders and advertised the product in magazines.
[5] The company's success was due to the relationships that Harp and Ely forged with vendors, in addition to a focus on advertising, packaging, and better user manuals.
The company rapidly declined, experiencing setbacks due to poor managerial decisions, mistimed advertising, and the entrance of IBM to the market.
[3] Harp McGovern went on to serve as president of the feminine hygiene business Aplex Corporation, which designed a handled, disposable paper funnel device enabling women to urinate while standing.