Good morning.
The too-elite club of female Fortune 500 CEOs will get a new member next year when Otis Elevator spins out of United Technologies. Judy Marks, who came on as president of Otis, will become CEO of the world’s leading elevator company, with $13 billion in revenue and 17% of the global market.
Marks visited Fortune’s new offices yesterday. She says Otis elevators touch an estimated 2 billion people a day, giving the company a pretty good view of the global economy. And right now, the signals they are getting from the U.S. and from China—which accounts for roughly half of all new elevator installations—remain strong.
“We are still seeing growth in the U.S. We haven’t seen a slowdown…and China is still a high growth market,” she said.
And for history buffs, here’s an interesting factoid: the first passenger elevator, with a safety brake, was exhibited by Elijah Otis at the 1854 New York World’s Fair.
I’m on my way to Paris this morning, where I will be reporting on the Fortune Global Forum next week. More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
