Bendix
Agee joined Bendix Corporation, an automobile industry related manufacturer located near Detroit, Michigan, in May 1972. He had been recruited for the post by Bendix's then-CEO, Michael Blumenthal. Agee 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 in the new Carter Administration.
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 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, 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.
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