Rand Araskog
Rand Vincent Araskog is an American businessman, and a former CEO of ITT Corporation. Araskog is of Scandinavian origin; his grandfather emigrated from Sweden to Minnesota.
Rand Araskog was elected as a valedictorian in his school and went on to West Point where he studied until 1953, majoring in Soviet studies. As a result, he is fluent in Russian. Later, he studied at Harvard University.
He started his career in the Pentagon and was sent to work in Europe. Upon his arrival back to U.S., he left the Pentagon and joined Honeywell in 1960 as marketing director. In 1966, he joined ITT and was promoted to CEO in 1979, succeeding Lyman C. Hamilton. Also in 1979, he succeeded Harold Geneen as the board chairman. Araskog retired from ITT in 1998.
Araskog was named an Officer in the French Legion of Honor in 1987. He has also been awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy by the President of Italy and the Order General Bernardo O'Higgins by the president of Chile. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Hofstra University in 1990.
He is married and has three children, two daughters and one son.
Currently, he is self-employed as a private investor, and also acts as principal in RVA Investments and on the Board of Directors of the Palm Beach Civic Association.
