The IMSA Great Minds Program®
Robert A. Pritzker"How to Build a Business Conservatively, Ethically, and Profitably"
Mr. Pritzker shared anecdotes from his long and successful career as an engineer, plant manager, and entrepeneur. He also fielded a number of questions. Watch a replay of the dialog using RealPlayer.
The IMSA Great Minds Program® is made possible, in part, from a generous contribution from the Tellabs Foundation.
ROBERT A. PRITZKER Robert A Pritzker is President and Chief Executive Officer of Colson Associates, Inc.; Am-Safe Bridport Companies; Acumed, Inc.; MicroAire Surgical Instruments, Inc. and OsteoMed Corporation. These companies principally manufacture casters, aircraft restraint systems and medical devices worldwide. Together they have annual sales of nearly $413 million and employ about 3,200 people. He is also director of Hyatt Corporation and Western General Insurance.
Mr. Pritzker's entire professional life has been in industrial management. In 1953, he co-founded The Marmon Group starting with Colson Casters, manufacturers of industrial and institutional casters and wheeled equipment. Under his leadership as President and CEO, The Marmon Group had grown from $3.5 million in revenues to $6.5 billion in 2001 making it the 19th largest private company in the U.S. In 2002, he started Colson Associates.
Mr. Pritzker received a degree in industrial engineering (B.S.I.E.) from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1946. He also attended California Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois and Case Institute of Technology.
He is chairman of the Board of Trustees of Illinois Institute of Technology. He has received from IIT the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and Science. He was a professorial lecturer on business management at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He was an associate fellow at Templeton College, Oxford University and a visiting professor of the engineering faculty at Oxford University. He is past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Field Museum of Natural History, serves on the Board of Junior Achievement International, is a life trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center and is an honorary director of the Lincoln Park Zoological Society. He is a councilor and member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is former chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Mr. Pritzker and his wife, Mayari Pritzker, Ph.D., live in Chicago.
"I have known Robert Pritzker for many years . . . to listen to his enthusiasms about some of the +60 different manufacturing concerns in the Marmon Group is to experience elements of art, poetry and engineering that enter the practice of business. Listening will be profitable."
Leon Lederman
Tuesday, February 26, 2002 Academic Pit 9:45 AM -- 11:00 AM