3M was founded in 1902 as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. While it began as a mining firm, a focus on innovation led the company to create products to help it do things more easily and efficiently—and these proved to be immensely popular with everyone. 3M has gone on to make over 55,000 products, […]

Allstate Insurance Company was founded in 1931 as a division of Sears selling auto insurance by direct mail. It’s since grown to become the largest publicly held auto and home insurer in the US. Allstate employs over 40,000 people. In addition, it contracts with over 11,000 exclusive agents who act as its sales force. These […]

Aon is one of the world’s top providers of risk management, insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, human resource solutions, and outsourcing services—in other words, it offers what companies need to manage their risk, and manage and optimize their employees. In 2011, Business Insurance magazine ranked Aon the #1 largest insurance broker in the world based  on […]

AT&T began back in 1885 as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Since then this telecommunications giant has grown to become the largest provider of traditional  phones and the second-largest provider of mobile phones in the US, employing over 285,000 people across 57 countries. It also offers services beyond phones, such as Internet and broadband […]

Automattic, Inc. is a web development corporation founded in 2005 that’s created such popular services as Akismet, Jetpack, and VaultPress. However, Automattic is most famous for its blog hosting giant WordPress.com, which is available in 137 languages. Marketing Manager Sara Rosso told us that in its first 10 years WordPress.com hosted 2.5 billion posts and […]

Burns & McDonnell was founded in 1898 by Clinton S. Burns and Robert E. McDonnell, who set out to provide sanitary sewers, water works, and electric lights to cities in Kansas and Wyoming. Burns & McDonnell has since grown into a full-service engineering, architecture, construction, environmental, and consulting solutions firm. It’s one of America’s leading […]

CHG Healthcare Services is the US leader in “locum tenens staffing,” i.e., rapidly providing physicians temporarily to places around the country that at any given time are short on doctors (e.g., because a local doctor is on vacation, a patient has needs beyond the skills of local doctors, or an area is just perpetually lacking […]

Chili’s Grill & Bar is a popular casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Tex-Mex food. It was founded in 1975 by Larry Levine in Dallas, Texas, which remains the location for the company headquarters. Chili’s is now run by Brinker International, which owns over 900 Chili’s restaurants in the US, and more across five continents. […]

David Weekley Homes is the largest privately-held home builder in America. It was founded in 1976 in Houston, Texas by David Weekley, and has gone on to build residences in 15 cities, including Atlanta, Charleston, Raleigh, Jacksonville, Tampa, Denver, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. David Weekley Homes ranked #2 on Fortune Magazine’s June 2015 list […]

Deloitte began in 1845, when William Welch Deloitte opened an auditing office in London. Since then Deloitte has grown to a global brand representing numerous independent professional services firms that collectively employ over 225,000 people in more than 150 countries and territories around the world, and which in 2015 earned over than $35 billion. Deloitte […]

The Wall Street Journal is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S, with a circulation of over 2.3 million (including nearly 1 million digital subscriptions). It’s one of America’s oldest continuously printed newspapers, founded in 1889 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Based in New York City, and named after Manhattan’s Wall Street […]

Edward Jones is named after Edward D. Jones , who founded the company in 1922 in downtown St. Louis as a single-room office furnished with a desk, three chairs, and a hatrack. The firm has since grown to provide financial investment advice to over 7 million individuals and small business owners throughout the US and […]

Eli Lilly and Company was founded in 1876 by Colonel Eli Lilly, a veteran of the US Civil War who was frustrated by the poorly prepared and often ineffective medicines of his time. He set out to do better…and succeeded. Some 140 years later, Eli Lilly has grown to employ over 41,000 people providing innovative […]

When Frank S. Davis started the first national bank in Memphis in 1864, he planted the seed for what would eventually grow into First Horizon National. Over 150 years later, First Horizon National has became  a family of companies that include First Tennessee Bank, providing products and services for both business and consumer clients to […]

FleishmanHillard is an award-winning international communications firm that specializes in public relations, public affairs, marketing, paid media, and social media/transmedia. Among its services are brand marketing, reputation management, strategic integration, research & analytics, media relations, and crisis management. The company describes itself as “the most complete communications agency in the world, capable of reaching any […]

Genentech is a biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines to treat millions of patients with serious medical conditions. It especially focuses on oncology (cancer), immunology, tissue growth and repair, neuroscience, and infectious diseases. Genentech was founded in 1976 by Robert A. Swanson and Herbert Boyer. In 2009 the company was purchased by […]

Kimley-Horn and Associates is a highly innovative engineering design firm that specializes in residential, retail, and mixed-use land planning, urban development, environmental development, and transportation systems. Kimley-Horn’s numerous projects include parking and runway work at the nation’s busiest airports. Founded in 1967 by two transportation engineers, Kimley-Horn remains a private company. In fact, Kimley-Horn is […]

Mayo Clinic, which sprang from the medical practice of Dr. William Worral Mayo in 1864, has grown to become one of the most extraordinary and respected health organizations on the planet. The largest integrated nonprofit medical group in the world, Mayo Clinic has essentially three sides to it: an educational component that includes free medical […]

Mercedes-Benz Financial Services is a leading provider of “captive financial services”—that is, a subsidiary that offers credit, leasing, insurance, and/or other types of loans to customers buying the parent company’s products. In this case, the parent company is Daimler AG (formed in 1926 via a formal merger of German automobile manufacturers Benz & Cie. and […]

Microsoft Corporation is the world’s #1 software company (selling to both consumers and businesses), and also a powerhouse hardware company. Among its many products are the Windows operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, Skype, the Xbox game system, and a variety of business servers. According to Peggy Johnson, Executive VP of Global Business Development, “It’s […]

NuStar Energy is one of the largest independent liquids terminal and pipeline operators in America, with 8,600 miles of pipeline and 80 terminal and storage facilities that store and distribute crude oil, refined products, and specialty liquids. While NuStar is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, it has operations throughout the US, as well as in […]

Pinnacle Financial Partners is a bank and financial services company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 2000, and currently has nearly 35 branches. Pinnacle Financial Partners ranked #4 on Fortune Magazine’s June 2015 list of 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials. According to Communications SVP Sarae Janes, Pinnacle Financial Partners employs a variety of […]

Plante Moran provides auditing, accounting, tax services, management consulting, technology assessment and planning, and wealth management. The industries it serves include health care, financial, manufacturing, retail, dealerships, and not-for-profit and public sectors. The company was founded by Elorion Plante in 1924. Frank Moran was made co-partner  in 1950, at which point the firm’s name was […]

PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC, formed in 1998 as a result of a merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. It’s one of the world’s largest professional services networks, employing over 40,000 people in the US alone, and over 180,000 people in 157 countries around the globe. In 2014 it was the fifth-largest privately owned organization […]

Ryan, which was founded by CEO  G. Brint Ryan in 1991, is the largest indirect and property tax practice in North America and the seventh largest corporate tax practice in the US. Ryan’s other services include audit defense, tax recovery, credits and incentives, tax process improvement and automation, tax appeals, tax compliance, and strategic planning. […]

The Salk Institute  for Biological Studies was founded by Jonas Salk, the legendary scientist who developed the vaccine that wiped out the polio epidemic. In 1960, there were over 45,000 polio cases in the US. Two years later, after Salk’s vaccine had become widely available, the number of cases dropped to 910. Hailed as a […]

The Statistical Analysis System software, or SAS, was initially developed in 1966 by a consortium of eight universities via funding from the USDA for the sake of analyzing vast amounts of agricultural data. The project came to be led by Jim Goodnight and Jim Barr at North Carolina State University. When the USDA ended its […]

Siemens was founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske, who created Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske (Telegraph Construction Company of Siemens & Halske), a 10-man Berlin company that manufactured electrical telegraphs. Since then Siemens has grown into a global engineering and technology powerhouse with 343,000 workers in 190 countries, […]

State Farm was founded in 1922 by George Jacob “G.J.” Mecherle. And from the start, it was driven by innovation. Annette R. Martinez, State Farm’s VP of Human Resources, told us “(Mecherle) looked at the insurance industry and said, ‘I have a new idea.’ And he went and actually pitched this to an insurance company. […]

Transwestern was founded in 1978 as a developer, operator, leaser, and owner of commercial, retail, and industrial real estate. The private firm has since grown to over 2,100 employees operating in 34 cities across the US; and has expanded to offer a full range of commercial real estate services including construction, design, development, sustainability and […]

Tumblr is a blog hosting giant founded in 2007 by David Karp. It was purchased by Yahoo! in 2013 for a reported $1.1 billion, with Karp remaining as the firm’s CEO. Tumblr hosts over 250 million blogs and 120 billion posts; and nearly 65 million new posts a day. This international service is s available […]

Ultimate Software, which was founded in 1990 by CEO Scott Scherr, is a leader in cloud-based personnel management software. Its award-winning UltiPro helps over 2,800 companies automate all HR-related tasks, including hiring, payroll, benefits, time and labor management, appraisals, and compliance–or, as Vice President of Talent Laura Lee Gentry put it, “manage all phases of […]

World Wide Technology is a systems integrator and value-added reseller that helps organizations learn about, evaluate, design, and implement advanced technology. The latter include network design and installation, systems and application integration, e-commerce systems development, order tracking, and catalog management. Founded in 1990, World Wide Technology has grown into a global firm with more than […]