Three Monroeville-based companies, prominent leaders in the global high-tech manufacturing community, celebrated 40 years of unbridled growth this year with the Pittsburgh technology community at a gala event at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.
Compunetics (ICS)was founded with 10 employees in 1968. Giorgio Coraluppi, an Italian-born businessman, embraced Pittsburgh and nurtured his first company and its employees and helped it grow into three companies and 455 employees today.
Today ICS is one of the country's most sophisticated manufacturers of advanced printed circuit boards, delivering products to customers in the medical equipment, aerospace, high speed computing, defense, transportation and communications markets.
Last year ICS posted revenues of $10.5 million with 75 employees. In 2001, the company spunout Compunetix (IX), developers of state-of-the-art multimedia multipoint telecommunications systems for audio and videoconferencing both in the commercial and government markets. IX posted revenues last year of $47 million with 265 employees.
Not stopping there, Chorus Call was spunout of Compunetix in 1996, a world-class teleconferencing service provider offering a broad spectrum of audio, video, data and web-based conferencing services. Chorus Call’s revenues in 2007 were $18.8 million with 45 employees in Monroeville and 115 worldwide, a global reach that extends to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia.
Among the companies’ milestones are several U.S. and international patents; the development of the world’s first word processor with a full CRT screen; development of hardware for IBM's "Deep Blue," the famed computer that challenged world chess champion Garry Kasparov; technology for Trident nuclear submarines; the creation of a life-saving pediatric heart monitor, and pioneering efforts in employee benefits and stock ownership plans.
"Giorgio Coraluppi and his companies are significant examples of
entrepreneurial growth in southwestern Pennsylvania," said Audrey Russo,
president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. "Giorgio has been an inspiration.”
Writer: Debra Smit
Source: Aimee Miller/ Compunetics, Compunetix and Chorus Call
Image courtesy Compunetics