Raymond K. Mason: Difference between revisions

Raymond K. Mason has been an American business leader for nearly sixty years, almost 40 as head of the Charter Company. Charter was in the Fortune 500 for 11 years beginning in 1974 and ranked 61st in 1984.

Early life

Raymond Knight Mason was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1927. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1949 with a B.A. in Economics and immediately took over his family's business, the Mason Lumber Company. He founded the Charter Company that same year and was the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer until 1987. Charter was a holding company with investments in financial services, oil & gas marketing and production, insurance and communications.

Other Business

He was a director of Florida National Banks of Florida, Inc. from 1960 to 1974; in 1978, he became Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and controlling shareholder of American Banks of Florida, Inc., until their merger with SouthTrust of Alabama, Inc. in 1998.

Raymond K. Mason has served as Vice Chairman of Juniper Content Corporation since January 2007 and as a Director of Firestone since July, 2003. Mr. Mason has been Chairman of Rebuilding Services, Inc. (since July 1949), Acorn Ventures, Inc. (since August 1998), 12K, LLC (since December 2003) and Connemara Capital Company, LLC (since December 2003), which are private investment companies with investments in real estate, media, financial services, oil and gas and transportation.

Homes

Mason owned two unique properties, both of which were acquired through Edward Ball, his friend and mentor. Epping Forest was the former estate of Alfred I. du Pont and Jessie Ball du Pont, Edward’s sister. The Mason mansion, which Mason still owns, is a castle in Ballynahinch, County Galway, Ireland, and was once owned by Edward Ball.

President Ford

Mason was good friends with President Gerald Ford and hosted talks between Ford and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in November, 1975 at Epping Forest, Mason's home. Ex-President Ford became a consultant to the Charter Company and attended the funeral of Charter president Jack T. Donnell in 1982.