William Agee
Encyclopedia
William Joseph Agee is an American
businessman. In 1976 at age 38, he became the youngest non-family member CEO of a Fortune 100 Company when he was appointed President and CEO of the Bendix Corporation
. In the 1980s and 1990s he served as Chairman, President and CEO of Morrison Knudsen Corporation (MK). He is presently a business consultant, venture capitalist, and chairman of a charitable foundation. He has received six honorary doctorate degrees and has sat on the boards of Fortune 500
corporations including Equitable Life
and Dow Jones as well as Bendix and Morrison Knudsen. In 1979 he was featured in a Time magazine cover story titled "Faces of the Future", and was named Finance Magazine's "Financial Man of the Year" in 1976.
for his freshman year (1956–1957), and returned to Boise, Idaho when his family could not afford the tuition. He attended Boise Junior College for one year, earning an associate's degree
degree while working 40 hours per week in Albertson
’s accounting department. He then transferred to the University of Idaho
where he joined the Beta Theta Pi
fraternity, was elected senior class president, and graduated with highest honors.
Following graduation, Agee worked for the Title Insurance Company in Boise between 1960 and 1961. He was promoted to controller
and senior escrow officer at the age of 23. He then enrolled in the Harvard Business School
in 1961 and was awarded a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), with distinction, in 1963. He became a Certified Public Accountant
(CPA) in 1964 and joined the American and Idaho societies of CPAs.
(CFO) in 1969 at age 31, and Senior Vice President in 1971.
. He became CFO and Executive Vice President, and held a seat on the Board of Directors. He was elected President of the company in December 1976 at the age of 38, and was elevated to CEO a few weeks later when Blumenthal left Bendix to become the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
Agee was recognized in Time magazine for his strategy of bold, selective acquisitions aimed at transforming Bendix from a slow-growth manufacturing company in a mature industry, into a diversified high-tech corporation. Agee's strategy dramatically increased the stock value of Bendix during Agee's tenure despite a recession that afflicted two of its traditionally main businesses, automobile parts and machine tools. While competitors floundered in 1981, Bendix' profits increased 136% and its fiscal year revenues rose to $4.4 billion.
Agee was an unorthodox executive for the 1970s, often dressing in business casual
attire years before it was in vogue. He removed the traditional boardroom table, replacing it with large, comfortable chairs to improve communication. He abolished reserved parking for top executives, allowing the best parking spots to go to employees who arrived at the office the earliest.
He was best-known for promoting young employees based upon merit rather than seniority. His mentorship
of hard-working, recent MBA graduates was first publicly noticed with Agee's promotion of Bernard Winograd, at age 28. This practice continued and caused a flurry of media interest in 1980 when he promoted, with board approval, a qualified young woman, Mary Cunningham, to be his executive assistant and VP for Strategic Planning. A nationally publicized, sensationalized account of an alleged office romance between Agee and Cunningham – which both denied – led to Cunningham’s resignation in October 1980 when she felt she could no longer effectively do her job. The Bendix board issued a public statement highlighting her accomplishments. High profile women including Gloria Steinem
said that sexism and media bias had caused an unfair brouhaha. William Agee and Mary Cunningham were married in June 1982.
It was an era of corporate takeovers, and on the surface, the acquisition would have been a solid business move. With Ronald Reagan in the White House, defense spending was expected to increase substantially, and the U.S. auto industry, Bendix's primary client, was in decline. On August 25, 1982, Bendix announced it had purchased 1.6 million shares of Martin Marietta for $40 million. Martin Marietta fought the hostile takeover by attempting to acquire Bendix, employing the Pac-Man defense
, in which a company that is threatened with a takeover, attempts to turn the tables by acquiring its would-be buyer. At one point, Bendix owned a majority of Martin Marietta shares, while Martin Marietta, in turn owned a majority of Bendix shares. Neither Agee nor Marietta President Thomas Pownall would concede defeat, with Pownall refusing even to meet with Agee. When Marietta enlisted the help of a third company, United Technologies Corporation
. Agee sought a partner to fend off the threatened takeover of Bendix. Agee eventually found Edward Hennessy of Allied Corp.
, who offered a way out of the stand-off: Allied would take possession of Marietta's shares of Bendix in exchange for the return of Bendix's Marietta holdings. In effect, Martin Marietta would remain an independent company while Bendix would become a subsidiary
of Allied. Agee resigned from Bendix following the merger.
In February 1995, when MK announced a loss of $310 million for fiscal year 1994, a leak of an intended Agee resignation drew broad media attention which resulted in Agee resigning earlier than originally planned.
An example of Agee's success in venture capital and consulting is the growth and sale of Mozzarella Fresca, a company that he helped develop into the largest fresh mozzarella manufacturer in the West with customers ranging from Whole Foods
to Domino's Pizza
.
Agee has served on the Board of Directors of Fortune 500 firms including Dow Jones (1978–1993), the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (1974–1977), Morrison Knudsen (1974–1977 and 1981–1985) Equitable Life (1976–1985), ASARCO (1979–1981), and General Foods (1979–1983).
Agee also served as a Director of Allied Corporation, MK Gold Company, MK Rail Corporation, LoJack Corporation and Key Bank Corp. Other directorships have included the Committee for Economic Development, National Council for U.S. - China Trade, the Urban Institute, the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, the Detroit Renaissance Foundation, the United Foundation, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the Cranbrook Education Community.
(1980), Bryant College, Cleary University
, and Nathaniel Hawthorne College. In 1978, he received the Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award and in 1990 received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman. In 1976 at age 38, he became the youngest non-family member CEO of a Fortune 100 Company when he was appointed President and CEO of the Bendix Corporation
Bendix Corporation
The Bendix Corporation was an American manufacturing and engineering company which during various times in its 60 year existence made brake systems, aeronautical hydraulics, avionics, aircraft and automobile fuel control systems, radios, televisions and computers, and which licensed its name for...
. In the 1980s and 1990s he served as Chairman, President and CEO of Morrison Knudsen Corporation (MK). He is presently a business consultant, venture capitalist, and chairman of a charitable foundation. He has received six honorary doctorate degrees and has sat on the boards of Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
corporations including Equitable Life
Equitable Life
The Equitable Life Assurance Society , founded 1762, is a life insurance company in the United Kingdom. The world's oldest mutual insurer, it pioneered age based premiums based on mortality rate laying “the framework for scientific insurance practice and development” and “the basis of modern life...
and Dow Jones as well as Bendix and Morrison Knudsen. In 1979 he was featured in a Time magazine cover story titled "Faces of the Future", and was named Finance Magazine's "Financial Man of the Year" in 1976.
Education
Agee attended Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
for his freshman year (1956–1957), and returned to Boise, Idaho when his family could not afford the tuition. He attended Boise Junior College for one year, earning an associate's degree
Associate's degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges, and bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years...
degree while working 40 hours per week in Albertson
Albertson
Albertson may refer to:* Albertson , a given name or surname* Albertson, New York* Albertson Brook, a waterway in New Jersey, USA* College of Idaho or Albertson College of Idaho-See also:* Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board...
’s accounting department. He then transferred to the University of Idaho
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho is the State of Idaho's flagship and oldest public university, located in the rural city of Moscow in Latah County in the northern portion of the state...
where he joined the Beta Theta Pi
Beta Theta Pi
Beta Theta Pi , often just called Beta, is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, where it is part of the Miami Triad which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi. It has over 138 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada...
fraternity, was elected senior class president, and graduated with highest honors.
Following graduation, Agee worked for the Title Insurance Company in Boise between 1960 and 1961. He was promoted to controller
Comptroller
A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
and senior escrow officer at the age of 23. He then enrolled in the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
in 1961 and was awarded a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), with distinction, in 1963. He became a Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
(CPA) in 1964 and joined the American and Idaho societies of CPAs.
Boise Cascade
Agee was hired by Boise Cascade Corporation at age 25 and quickly moved up the corporate ladder. Starting as Executive Assistant to CEO Bob Hansberger, Agee was appointed Chief Financial OfficerChief financial officer
The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
(CFO) in 1969 at age 31, and Senior Vice President in 1971.
Bendix
Agee joined Bendix Corporation, an automobile industry related manufacturer located near Detroit, Michigan, in May 1976. He had been recruited for the post by Bendix's then-CEO, Michael BlumenthalW. Michael Blumenthal
Werner Michael Blumenthal served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977-1979.-Life and career:...
. He became CFO and Executive Vice President, and held a seat on the Board of Directors. He was elected President of the company in December 1976 at the age of 38, and was elevated to CEO a few weeks later when Blumenthal left Bendix to become the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
Agee was recognized in Time magazine for his strategy of bold, selective acquisitions aimed at transforming Bendix from a slow-growth manufacturing company in a mature industry, into a diversified high-tech corporation. Agee's strategy dramatically increased the stock value of Bendix during Agee's tenure despite a recession that afflicted two of its traditionally main businesses, automobile parts and machine tools. While competitors floundered in 1981, Bendix' profits increased 136% and its fiscal year revenues rose to $4.4 billion.
Agee was an unorthodox executive for the 1970s, often dressing in business casual
Business casual
Business casual is a popular dress code in professional and white-collar workplaces in Western countries. In the United States, 43% of non-self-employed workers commonly wear casual business attire. Casual street wear is the next most common work attire , closely followed by uniforms...
attire years before it was in vogue. He removed the traditional boardroom table, replacing it with large, comfortable chairs to improve communication. He abolished reserved parking for top executives, allowing the best parking spots to go to employees who arrived at the office the earliest.
He was best-known for promoting young employees based upon merit rather than seniority. His mentorship
Mentorship
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....
of hard-working, recent MBA graduates was first publicly noticed with Agee's promotion of Bernard Winograd, at age 28. This practice continued and caused a flurry of media interest in 1980 when he promoted, with board approval, a qualified young woman, Mary Cunningham, to be his executive assistant and VP for Strategic Planning. A nationally publicized, sensationalized account of an alleged office romance between Agee and Cunningham – which both denied – led to Cunningham’s resignation in October 1980 when she felt she could no longer effectively do her job. The Bendix board issued a public statement highlighting her accomplishments. High profile women including Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
said that sexism and media bias had caused an unfair brouhaha. William Agee and Mary Cunningham were married in June 1982.
It was an era of corporate takeovers, and on the surface, the acquisition would have been a solid business move. With Ronald Reagan in the White House, defense spending was expected to increase substantially, and the U.S. auto industry, Bendix's primary client, was in decline. On August 25, 1982, Bendix announced it had purchased 1.6 million shares of Martin Marietta for $40 million. Martin Marietta fought the hostile takeover by attempting to acquire Bendix, employing the Pac-Man defense
Pac-Man defense
The Pac-Man defense is a defensive option to stave off a hostile takeover in which a company that is threatened with a hostile takeover "turns the tables" by attempting to acquire its would-be buyer....
, in which a company that is threatened with a takeover, attempts to turn the tables by acquiring its would-be buyer. At one point, Bendix owned a majority of Martin Marietta shares, while Martin Marietta, in turn owned a majority of Bendix shares. Neither Agee nor Marietta President Thomas Pownall would concede defeat, with Pownall refusing even to meet with Agee. When Marietta enlisted the help of a third company, United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in the United Technologies Building in Hartford, Connecticut...
. Agee sought a partner to fend off the threatened takeover of Bendix. Agee eventually found Edward Hennessy of Allied Corp.
Allied Corp.
Allied Chemical Corporation was a major American company with operations in the aerospace, automotive, oil and gas industries. It evolved from the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation....
, who offered a way out of the stand-off: Allied would take possession of Marietta's shares of Bendix in exchange for the return of Bendix's Marietta holdings. In effect, Martin Marietta would remain an independent company while Bendix would become a subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Allied. Agee resigned from Bendix following the merger.
Morrison Knudsen
From 1988 to 1995 Agee was Chairman, President and CEO of the construction company, Morrison Knudsen Corporation (MK) of Boise, Idaho. He had served on MK's Board of Directors for several years, and he was the Board's first choice to step in as CEO and President. At that time, a hostile takeover attempt by Chicago businessman Edward Heil and record losses were threatening the company’s existence. Agee successfully thwarted the takeover and returned the failing Morrison Knudsen to profitability within one year. By 1990, Agee had made the company highly profitable and it was debt-free. Agee had employed a diversification strategy which changed the company from one which was nearly totally reliant on heavy construction, to one which was involved in railroad remanufacturing, precious minerals such as gold, and the transit business. Agee formed MK Gold and MK Rail Corporation, and was appointed CEO of each. MK had record profits between 1989 and 1991 which derived from operating revenue, accounting decisions, and non-traditional sources of income such as investments. During his time with MK, Agee replaced most of Board of Directors, including Velma Morrison, second wife of company co-founder Harry Morrison, who then became an outspoken critic of Agee.In February 1995, when MK announced a loss of $310 million for fiscal year 1994, a leak of an intended Agee resignation drew broad media attention which resulted in Agee resigning earlier than originally planned.
Business Consultancy
Agee is Chairman of Semper Charitable Foundation, the Semper family's charitable foundation, and he chairs Semper Partners, a venture capital and consulting firm founded in partnership with his wife, Mary Cunningham Agee. Semper Partners expertise is in turning around small, entrepreneurial companies.An example of Agee's success in venture capital and consulting is the growth and sale of Mozzarella Fresca, a company that he helped develop into the largest fresh mozzarella manufacturer in the West with customers ranging from Whole Foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
to Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
.
Agee has served on the Board of Directors of Fortune 500 firms including Dow Jones (1978–1993), the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (1974–1977), Morrison Knudsen (1974–1977 and 1981–1985) Equitable Life (1976–1985), ASARCO (1979–1981), and General Foods (1979–1983).
Agee also served as a Director of Allied Corporation, MK Gold Company, MK Rail Corporation, LoJack Corporation and Key Bank Corp. Other directorships have included the Committee for Economic Development, National Council for U.S. - China Trade, the Urban Institute, the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, the Detroit Renaissance Foundation, the United Foundation, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the Cranbrook Education Community.
Awards and honors
Agee's has received honorary doctorates from the University of Detroit (1980), Lawrence Institute of Technology (1980), Eastern Michigan UniversityEastern Michigan University
Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...
(1980), Bryant College, Cleary University
Cleary University
Cleary University is a Michigan based business university with two campuses; the Washtenaw Campus is located in Ann Arbor and the Livingston Campus is located near Howell. Both campus offer certificate, ABA, BBA, and MBA programs.- History :...
, and Nathaniel Hawthorne College. In 1978, he received the Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award and in 1990 received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor.
External links
- "Personalities: Room at the Top," TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, February 21, 1977.