Chad Hardaway How does a chemical engineer practice law? How does a lawyer run a chemical plant? How does an MBA graduate handle a house full of toddlers? Must take a triathlete.

It does. And Charles Louis Hardaway Jr. is the triathlete, the chemical engineer, the lawyer, the father of three, and he is USC's associate director of the Innovista Research Campus while he continues as the director of the Intellectual Property Office.

His wife Lisa, a psychology graduate with an MBA, has him figured out. The only big question lingering is "Who calls the investment shots with the family funds so there can always be shots of family fun?"

Chad Hardaway was born in Greenville's Memorial Hospital. At the time his father was a banker with Fidelity Federal, and his mother ran the house with Hardaway and his three younger brothers.

The oldest, Todd, works with Canal Insurance in Greenville. Eric, next in age, has degrees in marketing and engineering, and he's going back to Clemson to become a landscape architect. The youngest, Robert, is a freshman at USC, working towards an international business degree.

Hardaway majored in sandpiles at Mauldin Methodist kindergarten on Woodruff Road. He went to two elementary schools, both in Mauldin. He moved on to Hillcrest Middle and finally to Mauldin High School, where he displayed an especially talented foot. He was on the varsity soccer team as a forward, and he played varsity football as a place kicker and punter.

He worked the summers at Hardee's and also with his mother at a blueprint company.

As a USC freshman, he scored an Army ROTC scholarship, and he made the football team as a walk- on under Sparky Woods. But once he was awarded a full scholarship as an Eastman Scholar, and once he was tapped for the Honors College, Hardaway shifted his efforts away from the military and away from football to full- time academics. He was recognized for his efforts and invited to join the Mortar Board, something of a college Honor Society.

Hardaway spent two college summers working at the GE turbine plant in Greenville, where there were more than 500 people employed. One college summer was with the Eastman plant near St. Matthews, where he was hired full- time after graduation.

While he was a process engineer at the Eastman plant, Hardaway took USC's MBA courses at night. He left Eastman when he was accepted to law school, again at USC.

Hardaway and his wife Lisa met while in school in 1992, and they married in 1998. Five years later, they had Sarah, now six and in the first grade. Hannah is four, and she attends the Union United Methodist Church kindergarten. Trey, one- year- old, carries his father's name.

When Hardaway finished law school, he imme- diately went to work for the intellectual property office at USC, pushing patents and professors, and sharing royalties.

When John Parks was hired from Kentucky as USC's new director of the Innovista Research Campus, Parks needed an associate director who could locate the campus technical assets, knowing who was what with what technology, and what potential.

As director of USC's Intellectual Property Office, Hardaway has seen lots of start- ups. And as associate director of USC's Innovista Research Campus, Hardaway has seen lots of start- ups. In other words, Hardaway is a wealth grower regardless of which hat he wears.

On the side, considering Hardaway's creativity at discovering recreational time, he is a triathlete. In Columbia this year alone, there were three triathlons. In less than two hours from home, which includes Charlotte and Charleston, Hardaway can always find a triathlon provided he can engineer his schedule and manage the trip.