Career
The son of a doctor, Binger grew up on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended Saint Paul Academy, where he met his wife Virginia McKnight, daughter of 3M Chairman, William L. McKnight. He earned an economics degree from Yale University (class of 1938). His lifelong interest in the theatre was sparked while he was at Yale. He next earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School and on graduation, he joined Minneapolis law firm Dorsey & Whitney, where a client was Honeywell.
In 1943 he joined Honeywell, and became its president in 1961 and its chairman in 1965. On becoming Chairman of Honeywell, Binger revamped the company sales approach, placing emphasis on profits rather than on volume. he also stepped up the company's international expansion - it had six plants producing 12% of the company's revenue. He also officially changed the company's corporate name from Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co to Honeywell.
Under Binger's stewardship from 1961 to 1978 he expanded the company into such fields as defense, aerospace, computers and cameras. Honeywell was one of the eight major computer companies (with IBM - the largest, Burroughs, Scientific Data Systems, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, RCA and UNIVAC) through most of the 1960s. In 1970, Honeywell bought General Electric's computer division.
Read more about this topic: James H. Binger
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