Thomason Holdings

As a combination of trust and holding company, Thomason Holdings held all properties and investments in trust, overseen by a Board of Trustees. The Board would appoint a president and CEO to oversee operations. The original ownership distribution was as follows:
    Andrew Thomason 30%
    Mark Thomason 30%
    Victor Thomason 10%
    Paul Thomason 10%
    Xavier Thomason 5%
    Gavin Thomason 5%
    Aiden Thomason 5%
    Leon Thomason 5%
  All investments were held and managed by Thomason Holdings as a trust. As far as business operations were concerned, the management formerly provided by Thomason Industries was moved to Thomason Holdings, with Thomason Industries serving as an additional management company with its various manufacturing subsidiaries. All companies other than Thomason Holdings were publicly traded corporations. At the time of formation, the ownership of each was as follows:
    Thomason Industries 75%
    Thomason Heavy Industries 61%
    Thomason Computing 59%
  Within the first year, the need for capital investment drove the sale of additional shares, reducing the percentages as follows:
    Thomason Industries 60%
    Thomason Heavy Industries 55%
    Thomason Computing 52%
  Additionally, the death of Aiden Thomason required a recalculation of ownership, with his share of ownership being transferred to Leon by a vote of the Board of Trustees.   At the time of Victor’s death on the evening of October 20, 2032, he was serving as President of Thomason Holdings, with Paul Thomason serving as CEO. Paul would withhold the news as long as possible, to give time for the Board to assemble and name him president. Victor’s percentage of ownership would be transferred to Paul, giving him a 20% share.   Paul Thomason was not widely liked or respected, and lacked the business experience most felt was necessary to run a conglomerate of this magnitude, and the market responded by selling off Thomason stocks at a rapid pace. Sensing an advantage, the Board immediately ordered a series of emergency loans to buy back as much stock as they could at deflated prices.   Leon would not be informed until just before news broke on the morning of the 21st. A plane would not be sent for him until the afternoon, as he was attending classes at Yale. He would arrive late in the evening of the 21st, just as Paul was concluding an interview with The New World, where he explained that Victor had left detailed instructions on how they were to proceed. Paul would go on to explain that he would continue to follow Victor’s largely hands off approach to running the conglomerate, and he remained committed to the pursuit of excellence that Victor had established. As further reassurance, he mentioned that Leon was attending college for business management, specifically to take over the company after graduation.   Leon was already a fairly well known quantity, having taken over Aiden’s role as company spokesman following Aiden’s decision to join the Anatos mission. He had already established himself as being well informed and detail oriented, and it had leaked from company insiders that he insisted on knowing how everything was made and where all components were sourced from before promoting them. It was more the knowledge that Leon was coming than Paul’s own confidence that reassured the markets and stopped the mass sell off of stocks.   Leon would return to Yale, then attending Cambridge and Oxford for his master’s and doctorate degrees, all while also serving as company spokesman. Upon graduation, he was made Director of Marketing for all the companies under Thomason Holdings, as Paul had centralized much of the public relations aspects to reduce operating costs. He was not, however, initially given a position on the Board of Trustees, or named CEO as Paul had indicated was the original plan.   The Board would make Leon a member over Paul’s objections in 2037, and with Paul’s ultimate suicide a few weeks later the door was open for Leon to be named president of Thomason Holdings. Leon persuaded the Board that more was needed to centralize and plan the conglomerate under Thomason Holdings, so the Board also named him CEO, as well as President of each of the companies under the holding company. Leon would subsequently be the only person to ever directly manage every subsidiary in the history of Thomason Holdings.   Leon would maintain his 10% stake in the company, dictating that Paul’s share be reinvested into the company as a general reserve fund. Following the establishment of the Terran Imperium, Leon’s share would be combined with this, and it would be these funds that maintained House Thomason. When Emperor Rauschning seized the assets of all Imperial Houses, Thomason Holdings was immune as it was a separate trust not entirely controlled by House Thomason.   To fund further growth, Leon would sell off all but 52% of each company’s stocks, thereby maintaining majority control but also allowing immediate investment. This practice would be followed by each subsidiary.      

Enmalex War Era Thomason Holdings

  The number of subsidiaries grew considerably over the centuries, but generally fell into several categories:
Thomason Computing
    Thomason Supercomputers
    Thomason Navigation
    Stellar Navigation
  Thomason Industries
    Thomason Manufacturing
    Thomason Automotive
    Thomason Construction
  Thomason Heavy Industries
    Thomason Shipbuilding
    Remus Design
    Thomason Power
    Thomason Mining
    Thomason Steel
    Thomason Agricultural Equipment
    Thomason Heavy Equipment
    Thomason Heavy Construction
  Thomason Shipping
    Astra Lines
  Thomason Property Management
  As part of the wartime emergency measures, Thomason Shipping and Astra Lines were wholly operated by the government, and all other manufacturing was strictly controlled by government contract. The destruction of the jump beacon system would bankrupt Stellar Navigation, causing a cascade effect through all of Thomason Computing. The nature of the government manufacturing contracts would endanger all of Thomason Holdings, and it was only through the reserve system put in place by Leon and carefully maintained by his successors that allowed it to survive without taking out excessive loans as other companies did.