GRACE & COMPANY

in full W.R. Grace & Company American industrial company, with international interests in specialty chemicals and health-care services. Its headquarters are in Boca Raton, Fla. The company grew out of a Peruvian land and resource enterprise formed by William R. Grace in 1854. In 1865 Grace moved the business headquarters to New York City, where the company expanded into shipping. The firm was incorporated in the United States in 1899. Under the founder's grandson, J. Peter Grace, who led the firm from 1945 to 1989, Grace & Company evolved from an agricultural and transportation firm with heavy investments in Peru and Chile into a diversified chemical giant. The shift away from Latin-American operations began in 1950, and in 1970 the company's Peruvian industries were nationalized. In the 1970s the sale of chemicals and chemical products came to account for more than half of annual revenues. Grace & Company moved into the areas of consumer goods and energy resources in the 1980s but sold these and its fertilizer operations in the early '90s to concentrate on its specialty-chemical businesses, including flexible packaging materials, container sealants, catalysts, and water-treatment and construction products. The company also operates a chain of kidney dialysis service centres.