ELFA Mobile

Kenneth Pontikes

1940 - 1994

Founder of Comdisco and a pioneer in independent IT leasing

Kenneth Pontikes: 2014 Inductee

Kenneth Pontikes was born on the South Side of Chicago on March 15, 1940. His parents, who emigrated from Greece, ran a grocery store. He graduated from Southern Illinois University (SIU) in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in economics and marketing.

From SIU he went to work for IBM for five years as a salesman in its information records division. Kenneth then became Manager of Computer Brokerage Operations for Data Power Inc., a computer-service firm in Chicago before forming Comdisco in 1969.

Kenneth founded the Rosemont-based company Comdisco Inc. with a $5,000 loan and the goal of using his five years of experience as an International Business Machines salesman to broker deals between companies buying and selling used computers.

Photo of Ken Pontikes by Steve Buhman

As its Chairman and President, he steered Comdisco first as a private company and, beginning in 1971, as a public one. Later he began building centers to provide backup processing power to customers with computers that had been damaged by natural disasters or power failures. By the 1980's, he had prospered enough to be put on Forbes Magazine's list of the nation's 400 wealthiest people.

In 1986 the College of Business and Administration at SIU named him its Entrepreneur of the Year, one of many awards with which Kenneth was honored during his career.

In 1988 he received the Peat-Marwick High-Tech Entrepreneur Award and was also named Crain's Chicago Business Executive in 1991.