Bendix Abuzz

Agee shakes up his company

William M. Agee, 42, of Bendix Corp., is an unorthodox manager. After becoming chairman of the automotive and aerospace manufacturer in 1977, he set up a telephone line so that employees could call him directly about complaints. He then abolished the main conference table in the company's headquarters, arguing that this would enhance conversations among the firm's officials. Directors at board meetings now sit around the room in comfortable office chairs. He decreed that the best parking space in the company lot be reserved not for himself but for the person who arrived first at work each day. For his part, Agee, who sometimes shuns corporate pinstripes in favor of an open-necked shirt and slacks, pulls up in a new silver Corvette.

Now Agee, who at 31 was chief financial officer of Boise Cascade Paper Co., is shaking up Bendix, which last year ranked 88th on the Fortune 500 list with sales of $3.8 billion and profits of $163 million. Last week he put up for sale the company's $435 million timber operations as well as $300 million of stock in Asarco, which mines copper and other metals. He wants Bendix to concentrate more on high technology and electronics and less on natural resources.

Agee also made some major personnel changes and decentralized the firm's management by appointing four new operating group heads. In so doing, he unintentionally set off titillating gossip that he was involved in an executive-suite romance. President William Panny and Executive Vice President Jerome Jacobson departed. Jacobson's replacement as a vice president and chief corporate planner is Mary E. Cunningham, 29, a striking blond who joined Bendix just 15 months ago as Agee's executive assistant. A Wellesley College magna cum laude graduate and, like her boss, the holder of a Harvard M.B.A., she has emerged as the chairman's top adviser.

Bendix rumor mills immediately went into overtime. Cunningham is separated from her New York-based husband, while Agee has just been divorced from his wife of 23 years.

Putting a stop to that speculation clearly required more than a hotline phone call. Thus Agee last week summoned a meeting of company staff to dispel the rumors that his new vice president had become a most favored employee. "I know it has been buzzing around that Mary Cunningham's rise in this company is very unusual and that it has something to do with a personal relationship we have," he said. "It is true that we are very close friends. But that has nothing to do with the way that I and others in this company evaluate her performance." For her part, Cunningham called the corridor talk sexist. Said she: "Unfortunately, we're culturally bound by norms that preclude in many minds the existence of someone like myself." After the conference, company officials said there would be a major announcement by Cunningham and Agee. That sparked further speculation about wedding plans. But then the announcement was canceled without any explanation.

Agee has frequently promoted young people more on the basis of their future promise than on their past performance. Last year, for example, he appointed Bernard B. Winograd, 28, corporate treasurer. A determined Agee told TIME: "Our policy is, and will continue to be, to promote the most qualifed people." His further success at Bendix, however, may depend on whether he can outlast the water-cooler gossipers.

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