Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen (January 22, 1910 – November 21, 1997), was an American businessman most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation.

Biography

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 New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. Between 1956 and 1959 he was senior vice president of

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...

, 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 The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and Benjamin Franklin Jones, a few miles (c 4 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in ...

, for reckless management of the company books. From 1959 to 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 an international conglomerate with $17 billion sales in 1970. He extended its interests from manufacturing of telegraph equipment into insurance,

hotels A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, 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 Hotel Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Cen ...

s. ITT had many overseas interests. In Europe it had telephone subsidiaries in numerous countries. In Brazil, it owned a telephone company that would be nationalised by President

João Goulart João Belchior Marques Goulart (1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the ...

. ITT also had some $200 million-worth of investments in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Under Geneen's leadership, ITT funneled $350,000 to Allende's opponent,

Jorge Alessandri Jorge Eduardo Alessandri Rodríguez (; 19 May 1896 – 31 August 1986) was the 27th President of Chile from 1958 to 1964, and was the candidate of the Chilean right in the crucial presidential election of 1970, which he lost to Salvador All ...

. When Allende won the presidential election, ITT offered the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

$1,000,000 to defeat Allende, though the offer was rejected. Declassified documents released by the

in 2000 reveal that ITT financially helped opponents of

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

's government prepare a

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

. On September 28, 1973, an ITT building in New York City, New York, was bombed by the

Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a far-left militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, the group was organized as a faction of Students for a Democr ...

for involvement in the

September 11 Events Pre-1600 * 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends: The Roman Empire suffers the greatest defeat of its history and the Rhine is established as the border between the Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hu ...

overthrow of the Allende government. In 1977 Geneen retired as CEO and president of ITT, was chairman of the board until 1979, and stayed on the board for four more years. While chairman, he recruited James H. Frame from IBM as vice-president to head ITT's software division. His successors, particularly

Rand Araskog Rand Vincent Araskog (October 31, 1931 – August 9, 2021) was an American manufacturing executive, investor, and writer who served as the CEO of ITT Corporation. During his time as the CEO between 1979 and 1998 he was known for divesting the co ...

, steadily sold off parts of the business. In his obituary, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated that he remained active in business and on the boards of several educational institutes until his death, and had said "his post-retirement deal-making had earned him far more than he ever made at ITT." Geneen's widow, June Geneen, born in Berlin, New Hampshire, died in Boston in October 2012.

Books

Harold Geneen wrote and co-authored several books: * * * * There have been several books written about Geneen's time at ITT, and at least one about Geneen himself. *.

References

External links

Harold Geneen BiographyHarold Geneen's bioHarold Geneen's detailed profile and pics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geneen, Harold 1910 births 1997 deaths ITT Inc. people Raytheon Company people 20th-century American businesspeople British emigrants to the United States New York University alumni American business writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Italian descent