Rand Araskog

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Rand Vincent Araskog (born October 31, 1931) is a prominent U.S. businessman and an ex-CEO of ITT Corporation. Araskog is of Scandinavian origin; his grandfather arrived to Minnesota from Sweden.

Rand Araskog was elected as a valedictorian in his school and went on to West Point where he studied until 1953, majoring in Soviet studies. He is fluent in Russian. Later, he studied at Harvard University.

He started his career in Pentagon and was sent working in Europe. After his arrival back to U.S., he left Pentagon and joined Honeywell in 1960 as marketing director. In 1966 he joined ITT and was promoted to CEO in 1979, succeding famous Harold Geneen. Araskog retired from ITT in 1998.

Araskog was named an Officer in the French Foreign Legion of Honor in 1987. He has also been awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy by the president of Italy and the Order General Bernardo O'Higgins by the president of Chile. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Hofstra University in 1990.

Currently, he is a self-employed as a private investor as principal in RVA Investments.

[edit] Bibliography

Araskog, Rand V. (2000). The ITT Wars: An Insider's View of Hostile Takeovers. New York: Beard Books. ISBN 1-89312-238-7.
Araskog, Rand V. (1989). Dawn Raiders and White Knights: The Inside Story of a Corporation Under Siege. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 1-853-36160-7.
Araskog, Rand V.; James L. Bikoff (1987). Toward the Year 2000. New York: ITT Corporation.