ITEL

Company History: Itel Corporation is a diversified transportation and logistics company. Its principal business operations are divided between the following subsidiaries: Anixter Distribution and ANTEC are leading U.S. suppliers of wiring system products for voice, data, and video communications as well as for the transmission of electrical power; Itel Container is the world's largest intermodal container lessor; and Itel Rail Corp. is a leading lessor and manager of railcars in the United States and a manager of several shortline railroads and rail car maintenance facilities. Anticipating growth potential in data networking and cable industry, Itel shifted primary emphasis to its Anixter and ANTEC units in the early 1990s. The company also made minority investments in other enterprises ranging from energy to real estate.

Itel was founded in 1967 by San Francisco businessmen Peter Redfield and Gary Friedman, primarily as a leasing company for computer systems. With $72,000 of their own capital, the partners raised $10 million in equity from Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. They hired a staff of aggressive young businesspersons to develop innovative, intricate, and often risky financial mechanisms. Itel set industry records by achieving $1 billion in revenues in its first 12 years.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.