Business Notes Corporations

To corporate executives, naming a successor is like acknowledging one's own mortality. Even for secure, welladjusted CEOs it can be an unpleasant experience. Certainly it has proved a difficult task for Harry Jack Gray, 65, the chairman of Hartford-based United Technologies. Four potential successors have come and gone at United Technologies during the past six years. Last September, Heir Apparent Robert Carlson suddenly resigned as president, amid reports that Gray had allegedly wiretapped his office and home. An investigation by the company's directors uncovered no evidence of such skulduggery.

Last week Gray announced that he will step down as chief executive on Jan. 1, when President Robert Daniell, 51, takes over. Gray, however, may continue to control the $16 billion aerospace conglomerate. He owns 2.5% of the company's stock, and will remain chairman for the foreseeable future.

Daniell, a 29-year company veteran, made his mark turning around the firm's Sikorsky helicopter business. It remains to be seen if Gray will allow him to work wonders running the rest of United Technologies.