John W. Teets

Chairman and President of Dial Corporation

CEO John W. Teets died at age 77 in Paradise Valley after suffering complications with Alzheimer?s disease.

Teets was one of Arizona?s most influential business and community leaders of the past 50 years. His impact on and deep commitment to Phoenix and greater Arizona spans four decades.

Teets was a self-made businessman who went on to be CEO of one of the country's most successful Fortune 500 corporations. He led a $5 billion conglomerate with 48,000 employees and reshaped it into a leading consumer goods and service company.

As a young entrepreneur, Teets was a partner in an entertainment complex in suburban Chicago which housed 16 shops, an ice-skating rink and a 300-seat restaurant. He joined the Greyhound Corp. in 1963 to help develop the restaurants at Greyhound?s Post House subsidiary operating at the New York World?s Fair.

Here's a look at Teets' early career in business:

* 1965: At age 32, Teets became president of two food service subsidiaries, Post Houses and Horne?s Enterprises, the youngest subsidiary COO in Greyhound's history.
* 1975: He eventually went on to become president and CEO of the Greyhound Food Management and group vice president of food service for the Greyhound Corp.
* 1980: Teets was elected vice chairman of the Greyhound Corp. and to the board of directors. He soon was named chairman and CEO of Armor & Co., then a Greyhound subsidiary.
* 1981: Teets became CEO of the Greyhound Corp.
* 1982: He was elected chairman of the board for the Greyhound Corp.

Over the next 10 years, Teets restructured Greyhound from a giant conglomerate into a streamlined company. The move made the it more manageable and profitable and more attractive to investors. He sold the Armor meatpacking company in 1983 to ConAgra for $2 billion, but retained the consumer products business which became known as the Dial Consumer Products Group.