Emerson was founded in 1890 in St. Louis, Missouri, as a manufacturer of electric motors and fans. Over the past 100-plus years, Emerson has grown from a regional manufacturer into a global technology solutions powerhouse. In the 1990s, Emerson continued to upgrade its process and product technologies and markedly increased sales overseas. Under Knight's leadership, the company repositioned itself for growth by launching several initiatives to expand markets and leverage its human and technology resources.

One recent growth initiative includes a $2.5 billion investment in companies focused on fast-growth markets for network power. These companies serve the needs of the rapidly expanding communications industry and buildout of the Internet infrastructure. With the addition of Emerson Telecommunications Products and Emerson Energy Systems in 2000, we added over $1 billion of annualized sales to our core network power capabilities, making Emerson the global leader in highly reliable power systems. In conjunction with this growth initiative we created the Emerson Network Power business, which is currently the largest of Emerson's Brands.