Company Profile Directory

3M is a leading manufacturer of adhesives, tapes, and a variety of industrial and medical products. There are six divisions: consumer and office supplies; industrial and transportation, electro and communications (connecting, splicing, and insulating products); display and graphics (specialty film, traffic control materials); health care (dental and medical supplies, and health IT); and safety, security, and protection (commercial care, occupational health and safety products).

Abbott is a health care products manufacturer whose products extend from nutritional products and laboratory diagnostics to medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The company conducts business in at least 130 countries around the world.

Accenture Ltd. is the largest consulting firm in the world, incorporated in Bermuda with its main U.S. office in Chicago, Illinois. It has made the outsourcing of jobs into big business.

The company was established as the consulting wing of Arthur Andersen, Andersen Consulting, splitting off in 2000, when it changed its name to Accenture.

AlBaraka Islamic Bank (AIB) is a leading of Islamic bank in Pakistan and has operated in the country as branches of AlBaraka Islamic Bank Bahrain since 1991. It is a leading provider of banking in compliance with Shari’ah principles and has 18 branches in 10 major cities of Pakistan. All if it's banking activities are regulated by a Board of Shariah Advisors based at the Head Office in Bahrain and a Shariah Advisor based in Pakistan, to ensure compliance with the standards of Islamic Banking principles.

Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is headquartered in Edina, Minnesota and was founded in 1990 as an offshoot from the Honeywell corporation. ATK provides small-caliber ammunition to military, police, and hunters. In recent years the corporation has been awarded more contracts for guided weapons, which maximize damage to the target while minimizing civilian casualties. Some of the more controversial products this corporation produces are cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons.

The company is the world leader in integrated power plant, in power production services and air quality control systems. Alstom works with all energy forms (coal, gas, nuclear, fuel-oil, hydropower, wind). Alstom will provide the conventional island for the future EPR nuclear power plant in France. The Group is also developing CO2 capture processes that could lead to commercial scale in the medium term.

Altria Group, Inc (previously named Philip Morris Companies Inc.), based in New York City, is the parent company of Philip Morris International, Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations. In addition, Altria Group, Inc. has a 28.7% economic and voting interest in one of the world's largest brewing companies, UK based SABMiller plc. It is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.

ALZA Corporation is a pharmaceutical and medical systems company founded in 1968 by Dr Alejandro Zaffaroni; the company's name is a portmanteau of his name. In addition to a variety of pharmaceuticals, ALZA makes a range of drug delivery systems.

American Apparel is a clothing company with the assurance of “sweatshop-free” clothing. It was started by a young entrepreneur Dov Charney with the hopes of attracting a market base of young, hip urbanites with a mind towards labor rights and ethical business practices. American Apparel now has stores in L.A., New York, and Chicago, among other locations, with 4,500 employees that receive living wages and benefits.

Founded in 1976, Anteon is an information technology and engineering company focusing on intelligence and national defense. Anteon is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia as a private contractor. It's main client is the U.S government with more than 90 percent of its revenues from Homeland Security, Intelligence Agencies, and the Pentagon.

Arysta produces chemicals and recently registered the new fumigant, methyl iodide with the EPA. Methyl iodide has been proven to cause cancer in lab rats, and is now proposed to be used as an insecticide on "strawberries, tomatoes and peppers, ornamentals, turf, trees, and vines." The approval of this chemical has been widely opposed.

The Atlas Group established Atlas Investment Bank in 1990 as a joint venture between Atlas Group and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Japan. With an associated company, Atlas Lease Limited formed in 1989 as a joint venture between the Atlas Group, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Japan and the National Investment Trust, Pakistan was merged into the Bank in February, 2002. After the merger, the shares of the joint venture partners were taken over by the Group. The head office of the Bank is situated in Karachi with branch offices in Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad.

BAE Systems plc is the world's third largest defence contractor, the largest in Europe, and a commercial aerospace products manufacturer. BAE is a British company headquartered at Farnborough, England, which has worldwide interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc.

Bank of America is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world. It is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units (RBU's) located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa, Argentina and Tanzania. On January 20, 2006, Barrick acquired a majority share of Placer Dome.

Bayer AG is credited as inventing aspirin as well as many controversial drugs such as heroin, Ciproxin and Baycol. Bayer AG is a massive German based chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufacturer. It has operations in most countries worldwide and had global sales for 2007 of 32.4 billion euro. Its operations are divided into three sectors: Health, Agriculture and Polymers (plastics, synthetic rubber).

Blackwater USA is a private military company and security firm founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. It is based in the U.S. state of North Carolina, where it operates a tactical training facility that it claims is the world's largest. The company trains more than 40,000 people a year, from all the military services and a variety of other agencies. The company markets itself as being "The most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world".

BNP Paribas is one of the main banks in Europe and France. It was created on May 23, 2000 through the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Paribas. Together with Société Générale and Crédit Lyonnais now LCL, it is part of the "three old" banks of France. It is part of the CAC 40.

Bombardier Inc. is a Canadian conglomerate, founded by Joseph-Armand Bombardier as L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée in 1942, at Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, Quebec. Over the years it has been a large manufacturer of regional aircraft, business jets, mass transportation equipment, recreational equipment and a financial services provider. Bombardier is a Fortune Global 500 conglomerate company. Its headquarters are in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

BP is a petroleum company based out of the UK, formerly known as British Petroleum. BP was named one of the "ten worst corporations" multiple times based on its environmental and human rights records. In 2007 BP applied for a permit that would allow it to increase the amount of toxics it dumps daily into Lake Michigan, which is a source of drinking water for Chicago. The permit would allow up to 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of suspended solids daily.

Bridgestone Corporation is based in Tokyo, Japan. The largest subsidiary of Bridgestone is the Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc., which is based in Nashville, TN and includes Firestone. The company is most well known for the production of tires. Bridgestone/Firestone has been the focus of an international campaign related to labor and environmental problems on its rubber plantation in Liberia.

Bunge Limited (formerly Bunge International and prior to that Bunge Y Born) is a Bermudan food conglomerate with its headquarters in White Plains, New York. As well as being a leading global soybean exporter it is also involved in food processing, grain trading, and fertilizer. It competes with Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland.

CACI, founded in the early 1960s as California Analysis Center Inc., is almost entirely a Beltway Bandit—some 94 percent of its revenue is derived from contracts with the U.S. government. About two-thirds of that revenue comes from the Pentagon, but CACI also enjoys the patronage of the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Commerce, Justice and Transportation. At the end of its last fiscal year, CACI had a contract backlog worth some $6.4 billion.

Canadian Oil Sands invests in Alberta's oil sands in partnership with the Syncrude Project. Using controversial methods, Syncrude dredges crude oil from the ground and is being protested by multiple civil society organizations.

Carrefour SA is a French international supermarket chain, with a global network of outlets. It is the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and sales figures after Wal-Mart. Carrefour operates mainly in the European Union, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, but also has shops in North Africa and Asia.

Caterpillar Inc. is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. Famous for their products featuring caterpillar tracks and a distinctive yellow paint scheme, Caterpillar produces a wide range of heavy equipment, mainly engineering and demolition vehicles, including the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. Among other controversies Caterpillar has been accused of human rights abuses in the Israeli Palestinian conflict by selling demolition equipment to the Israeli Defense Force.

Chevron is the world's fifth largest global energy company and engages in oil exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. The company is implicated in corruption regarding the "Food for Oil" program in Iraq, agreeing to over 25 Million USD in fines.

Cigna is a one of the largest health insurance providers in the US and covers over 9 Million people.

Citigroup, operating as Citi, is a major financial services company based in New York City. Formed by the 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group, the company employs 332,000 people around the world and holds over 200 million customer accounts in more than 100 countries.

Citi was implicated in various financial scandals of the early 2000s, including Enron and WorldCom. More recently, it has suffered massive losses from subprime mortgage securities and had to turn to sources such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the government of Singapore for $20 billion in capital infusions.

Coca-Cola manufactures ice cream, frozen deserts, flavored syrups and its well-known line of carbonated beverages. Based in Atlanta, the company employs 71,000 people. Coca-Cola’s sales for 2006 were $24 billion. Co-op America

Comcast is the largest cable provider and the second largest internet service provider in the United States. It has had a reputation for abysmal customer service and is being investigated by the FCC for blocking customer's access to internet content.

Costco is a big box store retailer that sells bulk household items. It has more than 490 stores throughout the world and sells jewelry that violates international labor and human rights standards. Many communities oppose the opening of new Costco stores in their neighborhoods because they argue that the store puts locally owned stores out of business and funnels money out of the local economy.

Crédit Agricole SA is the largest banking group in France, second largest in Europe and the sixth largest in the world by Tier 1 capital according to The Banker magazine. It is also part of the CAC 40 stock market index.

The Suisse Group is based in Zurich, Switzerland and is the second-largest Swiss bank. If you know more about the bank, feel free to edit this page.

CSAV, Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores, is a Chilean shipping company that is currently the largest in Latin America. CSAV, one of the oldest shipping companies in the world, was founded in 1872. The company’s business initially consisted exclusively of coastal shipping services but these were rapidly extended along the whole west coast of South America to the Panama Canal before this was opened to regular traffic.

See CVS Caremark.

Dell Computers manufacturers computers and computer-related equipment which it sells directly to the public by phone or internet. The company employed 66,100 people and recorded sales of $55.91 billion in fiscal 2006.

Deutsche Post AG is a German post, logistics and courier headquartered in Bonn, previously the German state-owned mail monopoly. Today Deutsche Post AG is the world's largest logistics company operating under the tradename "Deutsche Post World Net".

Dexia is a Belgian-French financial institution, specialized in public finance. It was founded in 1996 through the merger of Crédit Communal de Belgique/Gemeentekrediet van België (founded 1860) and Crédit Local de France (founded 1987). The Dexia Group was founded as a dual-listed company, but in 1999 the Belgian entity took over the French entity to form one company. Dexia is a member of the BEL20, CAC 40, and LuxX indices. The company is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

Dole Food Company, Inc. is the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables such as bananas and pineapples, and also produces cut flowers and nuts. Dole has a history of operating plantations in the US and across the globe, often creating poor working conditions and unsafe environmental conditions such as pesticide use, soil erosion and deforestation.

The Dow Chemical Company is the world’s second largest chemical company, behind only BASF. Dow’s primary industries are chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, agricultural sciences and plastics. In 2005 Dow sold $46.307 billion worth of goods and employed 42,413 people.

DRS Technologies is not well known outside military circles, but the company has grown from a niche supplier of sonar signal processing technology to the U.S. Navy into a $3 billion provider of a wide range of high-tech defense electronic products, systems and military support services.

DuPont is the third-largest chemical maker in the U.S., behind only Dow and Exxon Mobil Chemicals. In addition to chemicals, Dupont produces genetically modified seeds, synthetic fibres, coatings, electronics and security devices. DuPont's revenues totalled over $26.6 billion in 2005.

Électricité de France (EDF) is the main electricity generation and distribution company in France. It was founded on April 8, 1946 as a result of the nationalization of a number of electricity producers, transporters and distributors by the Communist Minister of Industrial Production Marcel Paul. Until November 19, 2004 it was a government corporation, but it is now a limited-liability corporation under private law (société anonyme). The government plans to float 30% of its shares on the stock market by the end of 2005, and retain 70% government ownership.

Embraer, the Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A., is a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate. The company produces commercial, military, and corporate aircraft, as well as providing related aerospace services. From 1999 to 2001 it was Brazil's largest exporter and is one of the three main exporters in Brazil. Among all aircraft manufacturers, it currently has the third largest yearly delivery of commercial aircraft (behind Boeing and Airbus) and the fourth largest workforce (behind Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier).

One of Italy's largest companies, Eni operates in the oil and natural gas, petrochemicals, and oil field services industries. Its main subsidiaries and affiliates include EniPower (power generation), Italgas (natural gas transmission), Saipem (oil field services), pipeline operator Snam Rete Gas, and Snamprogetti (contracting, engineering). As one of the world's leading oil enterprises, in 2006 Eni had proved reserves of more than 6.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent, most of it in Italy and in Africa. The Italian government owns about 30% of Eni but is considering selling the holding.