Unison Industries, LLC, headquartered Jacksonville, Florida, is involved in the design, manufacture, and integration of electrical and mechanical components and systems for aircraft engines and airframes. Frederick Sontag holds a B.S. in physics from Harvey Mudd College, an M.S. in physics from the University of Nevada, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He worked for several corporations during the 1970s before finding himself unemployed. Sontag invested his life savings in 1980 to secure an $8 million loan for a leveraged buyout of Slick Electro, an aircraft ignition manufacturer... in Rockford, Illinois. One of Sontag's first initiatives was to completely redesign the components and materials in the "Slick" products to make them more durable, reliable and easier to maintain. Business was good for several years, but in the mid-1980s, the small airplane market took a nosedive and the company was forced to lay off 180 workers. Sontag dedicated more resources to research and development for better and more diverse products.
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