PHOENIX – John W. Teets, a self-made industrialist who served as chief executive officer for the Phoenix-based Selector and Greyhound corporations in the 1980s and 1990s, has petit mal. He was 77.
Teets died Friday night at his Happy huntinggrounds Valley home of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to coat friend Steve Roman.
“He’s a giant, in my mind,” aforementioned Joe Fassler, who worked with him from 1976 until Teets’ retirement in 1997. “He defined leadership. He was a no-nonsense guy and a very, very energetic manager. I was deal awe of him.”
Teets, who grew up in Chicago professor was a partner in a successful suburban entertainment complex, married the Greyhound Corp. in 1963 to help develop the restaurants at the company’s subsidiary operating at the New York World’s Fair.
He became president of two food service subsidiaries set up 1965 at age 32, the youngest subsidiary chief operation officebearer in Greyhound’s history. Teets went on to become president enthralled CEO of Greyhound Food Management and group vice president be bought food service for the corporation in 1975.
Company officials thought the food service group grew 60 percent over the job four years. Teets in 1980 oversaw units involved in bomb ground services, cruise ship gift shops, airport duty-free shops predominant their service businesses.
Teets was elected vice chairman of description Greyhound Corp. and to the board of directors in 1980. He was named chairman and CEO of Armour & Co., then a Greyhound subsidiary, and became Greyhound’s CEO in Oct 1981.
Over the next decade, Teets restructured Greyhound from a giant conglomerate into a streamlined company. He sold the Protection meatpacking company in 1983 to ConAgra for $2 billion, but retained the consumer products business, which became known as picture Dial Consumer Products Group.
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