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 ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesse ...

. During his time as the CEO between 1979 and 1998 he was known for divesting the conglomerate of multiple businesses including hotels, rental cars, and insurance to retain its focus on its core telecom businesses.

Early life

Rand Vincent Araskog was born on October 30, 1931, in

Fergus Falls, Minnesota Fergus Falls is a city in and the county seat of Otter Tail County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,119 at the 2020 census. History The falls from which the city gets part of its name were discovered by Joe Whitford (a Scottis ...

in a family of Swedish descent. His father was a tax collector and a dairy farmer in the town. He was elected as a

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA) ...

in his school and went on to the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

at West Point where he graduated in 1953, majoring in

Soviet studies ''Europe-Asia Studies'' is an academic peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year by Routledge on behalf of the Institute of Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow, and continuing (since vol. 45, 1993) the journal ''Soviet St ...

. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

majoring in Russian studies and spent a year in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

serving at a US Army intelligence post.

Career

Araskog started his career working for the Defense Department at the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek language, Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is ...

and the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

from where he was sent to work in Europe. Upon his return to the U.S., he left the Pentagon and worked for

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

in 1960 as marketing director in the aeronautical division. In 1966, he joined

ITT Corp ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesse ...

oration in its Defense Space Group in

Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143. What is now Nutley was originally incorporated as Franklin Township by an act of the New Jersey Legisl ...

. When he joined the company, it had grown since its founding in 1920 as a telecom service provider for Cuba and Puerto Rico, to being a conglomerate with business interests spanning

Avis Car Rental Avis Car Rental is an American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Avis, Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental and Zipcar are all units of Avis Budget Group. Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in South A ...

s, Hartford Insurance,

Sheraton Hotels 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, Ce ...

and Hostess Twinkies, the company that manufactured

Wonder Bread Wonder Bread is a brand of sliced bread which originated in the United States in 1921 and was one of the first to be sold pre-sliced nationwide in 1930. The brand is currently owned by Flowers Foods in the United States. History The Taggart B ...

. During this time, he had become the right hand man of then chairman Harold Geneen. The company during this time was under scrutiny for its lobbying efforts in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and for foreign political interference 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 eas ...

an politics. With this background, he became the company's CEO in 1979 succeeding Lyman C. Hamilton. He also became the chairman of the board the same year, succeeding Geneen. His early years were spent building the group's telecom business, including developing the ITT System 12, an early stage digital telephone exchange, before selling the business to French state-owned company Generale d’Electricite in 1986. He continued to spend the remainder of his time as the CEO in divesting the vast conglomerate as investors were vying for focus on its core businesses. He saw off a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

bid of by

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

corporation but agreed to sell the group's hotel businesses under the Sheraton brand to Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. in 1997. He retired from the company in 1998. Araskog was named an Officer in the French Legion of Honor in 1987. He has also been awarded the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-rankin ...

by the President of Italy and the

Order of Bernardo O'Higgins The Order of Bernardo O'Higgins ( es, Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins) is an award issued by Chile. It is the highest civilian honor awarded to non-Chilean citizens. This award was established in 1965 and named after one of the founders of the Chilean ...

by the president of

. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of N ...

in 1990. He was later self-employed as a private investor and also acted as principal in RVA Investments and on the Board of Directors of American cable television company

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

and the Palm Beach Civic Association.

Personal life

Araskog met his wife Jessie Gustafson, when she was studying religion at

Gustavus Adolphus College Gustavus Adolphus College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavus gets its n ...

. The couple married in July 1956 and went on to have three children, two daughters and one son. He died on August 9, 2021, at the age of 89 in Palm Beach, Florida.

Bibliography

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References

External links

"INVESTING IT; ITT May Shrink, but Chief's Pay Stays the Same"
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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 ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Araskog, Rand 1931 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American business writers American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies American chief executives of manufacturing companies American investors American manufacturing businesspeople American people of Swedish descent Businesspeople from Minnesota Harvard College alumni Honeywell people ITT Inc. people Officiers of the Légion d'honneur People from Fergus Falls, Minnesota United States Military Academy alumni Writers from Minnesota Military personnel from Minnesota