Bangor Punta Corporation - In A Nutshell

The Prime Directives

A highly diversified firm, Bangor Punta Corporation, explains that the role of its corporate headquarters is "to act as a central bank supplying operating units with working capital and capital funds" (1966 Annual Report)…

"We think Bangor Punta is distinctive -- and perhaps exceptional -- among multi-industry companies..." (1968 Annual Report)

Bangor Punta's overall aim is to progress at an annual growth rate of 25%, employing the Corporation's assets to the greatest possible shareholder advantage.

The CEO of a conglomerate called Bangor Punta predicted that one day America would have only 200 corporations, all of them conglomerates. ¹

The Major Players

• Nicolas M Salgo, Bangor Punta's First CEO replaced by David W. Wallace in 1973 who was brought in six years earlier by Salgo to manage the struggling Bangor Punta.
• David W. Wallace, Chairman and CEO of Bangor Punta. Wallace would later oust James E. Stewart from Lone Star Industries in the mid 1990s and become Chairman of that company.
• James E. Stewart, Board of Directors, CEO and Chairman of Lone Star Industries. Stewart owned 20% of Bangor Punta and was described as a showy, ambitious dealmaker prominent in business and social circles during the 1970s and 1980s. ² James E. Stewart "liked living high and ostentatiously. He lavished $100 tips at New York's ``21,'' squired movie queens and once buzzed the Bohemian Grove in Lone Star's airliner-size BAC 1-11 jet." ³
• Count Ferdinand Graf Von Galen, German Financier, owned 20% of Bangor Punta.
• Charles M. Leighton, vice president of the leisure group who later starts CML Group, Inc.

¹ Brief excerpt from "A Concise History of Management Hooey For every Six Sigma quality initiative, there's an inkblot test. Why FORTUNE 500 companies fall prey to boneheaded fads and fashions. By Geoffrey Colvin June 28, 2004" This concept can be traced to Adolph Berle and Gardiner Means who compiled their classic study of the American marketplace in 1932. They discovered that one-half of all corporate wealth was in the hands of just 200 companies. If these companies continued to grow at their 1932 rate, they predicted that by 1950 these 200 companies would control three-quarters of the country's incorporated wealth. They also found that 90 percent of large firms were controlled by managers rather than by shareholder owners.
² Forbes; 8/1/94, Vol. 154 Issue 3, p38-39, 2p, 2c
³ "Was he born on Friday the 13th? By: Norman, James R., Forbes, 00156914, August 1 1994, Vol. 154"