Harold Geneen
| Harold Geneen | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Harold Sydney Geneen January 22, 1910 Bournemouth, Dorset, England |
| Died | November 21, 1997 (aged 87) New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Employer |
Raytheon ITT Corporation |
| Known for | CEO of ITT Corporation |
| Spouse(s) | June (Hjelm) Geneen |
Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen (January 22, 1910 – November 21, 1997), was an American businessman most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation.
Geneen was born on January 22, 1910 in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England. His father was Russian-Jewish, and his mother was an Italian Roman Catholic. He migrated to the United States from England as an infant and later studied accounting at New York University.
Between 1956–1959 he was senior vice president of Raytheon, developing his management structure, allowing a large degree of freedom for divisions while maintaining a high degree of financial and other accountability, which was surprising as he had been ejected from his prior employer, Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, for reckless management of the company books.
From 1959–1977 he was the president and CEO of International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (ITT). He grew the company from a medium-sized business with $765 million sales in 1961 into international conglomerate with $17 billion sales in 1970. He extended its interests from manufacturing of telegraph equipment into insurance, hotels, real estate management and other areas. Under Geneen's management, ITT became the archetypal modern multinational conglomerate. ITT grew primarily through a series of approximately 350 acquisitions and mergers in 80 countries. Some of the largest of these were Hartford Fire Insurance Company (1970) and Sheraton Hotels.
ITT had many overseas interests. In Europe it had telephone subsidiaries in numerous countries. In Brazil, it owned owned a telephone company that the CIA would be nationalised by President João Goulart. Geneen was personal friends with then Director of Central Intelligence, John McCone. The CIA performed psyops against Goulart, character assassination, pumped money into opposition groups, and enlisted the help of the Agency for International Development and the AFL-CIO. The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état exiled Goulart and the military dictatorship of Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco took over. McCone went to work for ITT a few years later. The resultant military dictatorship lasted until 1985.
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