Technology >> CEO Interviews >> January 3, 2003
RICHARD F. SYRON serves Thermo Electron Corporation as Executive
Chairman, a full-time position he has held since November 2002
and as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Syron joined
Thermo Electron in June 1999 as its Chief Executive Officer and
became Chairman of the Board in January 2000. Beginning in
January 2000, he led a major reorganization to establish Thermo
Electron as an integrated operating company focused on core
instrument businesses. Mr. Syron has been affiliated with the
company since 1997, when he was named an Independent Director.
Prior to joining Thermo, he served for five years as the 16th
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the American Stock
Exchange. He joined the Amex after more than 20 years in the
economic and banking communities. From 1989 to 1994, he served as
President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and from 1986 to
1989, he was President of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
Earlier, he served as assistant to then Federal Reserve Chairman
Paul Volcker and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S.
Treasury Department in Washington, DC. Mr. Syron was heavily
involved in working through the banking crises in New England in
the early 1990s. Mr. Syron is a Trustee and past Chairman of the
Boston College Board of Trustees and is a Trustee for the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. In addition, he
serves on the American Stock Exchange Board of Governors and the
Boards of Directors of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company
and McKesson Corporation. Mr. Syron earned a Doctorate in
Economics from Tufts University in 1971 and received a Master's
degree in the same field from Tufts two years earlier. A magna
cum laude graduate of Boston College with a Bachelor's degree in
Economics, he holds three honorary degrees from Boston College,
Bentley College and Bryant College. Profile
how you see the company today?
Mr. Syron: Thermal Electron is probably the world's largest
scientific hi-tech instruments
