Frederick W. Dow

Burger King Corp. is engaged in the operation and franchise of fast food restaurants. Its products include burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, and breakfast meals. The company was founded by James McLamore and David Edgerton in March, 1954 and is headquartered in Miami, FL.

West Group was founded by John B. West in 1872. West delivers a powerful competitive advantage to its customers by providing the highest-quality legal, regulatory and business information and the most innovative technology tools to manage it. In addition to being the home of Westlaw, West annually publishes over 66 million books and 500 CD-ROM. West offers a number of legal education components, including online CLE courses and preparatory materials for the Bar review

Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) provides air transportation services. It together with its subsidiaries engages in the business of transporting passengers and cargo. It has a fleet of about 450 aircrafts. It flies to more than 230 cities worldwide from hubs in Amsterdam, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis and Tokyo. Its domestic partners Pinnacle Airlines and Mesaba Airlines provide regional services to destinations under the Northwest Airlink banner. The carrier also has extensive alliances with Continental Airlines and Dutch airline KLM. It has joined SkyTeam, a marketing alliance led by Delta and Air France. Its principal subsidiaries are Northwest Airlines, Inc., MLT Vacations Inc. and Northwest PARS, Inc. It was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Eagan, MN.

Midas, Inc. is engaged in the business of automotive repair franchises. The company operates in a single segment with retail, real estate, supply chain and point-of-sale technology operations in support of the franchising of Midas and SpeeDee automotive service shops in North America. The company's retail operations consist of company-operated Midas and SpeeDee shops. Its real estate activities include the development, ownership and leasing of Midas and SpeeDee shops in the U.S. and Canada. The firm's supply chain activities include providing value-added merchandising services to franchisees in which the company establishes relationships with vendors who distribute products and equipment directly to Midas and SpeeDee shops. Its point-of-sale technology operations consist of the ownership, development, sale and leasing of automotive shop management software to Midas franchisees and other third-party automotive service providers. Outside of North America, the company operates on a master-franchise basis whereby the Midas and SpeeDee trademarks are licensed to master franchisees that sub-franchise Midas and SpeeDee shops in its respective territories. Midas was founded by Nate H. Sherman in 1956 and is headquartered in Itasca, IL.