Esterline

Esterline Technologies

Type	Public
Traded as	: ESL S&P 400 Component
Industry	Aerospace Defense Gaming Medical
Founded	Indianapolis, Indiana, 1906
Founder	John Esterline
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington
Number of locations	Over 50 locations
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Curtis Reusser, CEO
Number of employees	Over 12,000
Divisions	Avionics & Controls Sensors & Systems Advanced Materials
Website	esterline.com

Esterline Technologies Corporation is a publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and markets specialty products primarily for aerospace and defense customers. The company is best known as a supplier of products and equipment for aerospace companies such as Boeing and Airbus; and for American and allied military forces.

Esterline is based in Bellevue, Washington. Curtis Reusser serves as company chairman, president, and CEO.

Esterline was founded in 1906 by John Esterline, an electrical engineer and former head of the electrical engineering department at Purdue University. Esterline originally made magnets and recording devices. The company was renamed the Esterline-Angus Company when Esterline began working with Donald J. Angus.

Esterline-Angus merged with Boyar-Schultz, Inc., a manufacturer of surface grinding materials, in 1967. The newly merged company was renamed Esterline Corporation. Esterline went public in 1968. Later that year, the company entered the aerospace and defense sectors with its acquisition of Babcock Electronics.

The company began acquiring medical supply and equipment companies in 1969. By the early 1970s, the company held businesses specializing in ophthalmic goods and hearing aids. The company had sold the majority of its healthcare businesses and subsidiaries by 1978 when Esterline sold its hearing aid manufacturing business. Despite exiting the healthcare sector, Esterline continued to acquire more companies and acquired 20 companies by 1986.

In 1987, after releasing poor financial reports, the Esterline board dismissed the company's entire executive team including then-chief executive officer Thomas Howes. Later that year, Esterline appointed seven new senior officers, all of whom were affiliated with Criton Technologies, an aerospace manufacturer. Criton Technologies was wholly owned by Dyson-Kissner-Moran (DKM), a New York City-based investment firm that had also been Esterline's largest shareholder since the firm bought Esterline in 1967 and took it public in 1968. Carroll Martenson, Criton's chairman, was appointed chairman and CEO of Esterline. Esterline also relocated from Darien, Connecticut to Bellevue, Washington in order to share its headquarters with Criton Technologies. The company had been located in Darien, Connecticut since 1975.