Business Leadership

 

Together with his wife Loretta Doodeman Downey, Ed founded two companies. In 1969, they founded Ladycom a magazine for wives of servicemen. The name was a portmanteau for Lady+Communications.

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Loretta Downey posed on an early magazine cover with step-daughters Lisa and Lynda in 1969.

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Edward Downey in the early days of the company, when it was located on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, circa 1975.

After years of hard work, the company became a success.

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Ed and Loretta relocated the company to Washington, DC to be closer to key military commands, a move that sparked significant growth of the magazine. Recognizing changing demographics, the magazine changed its name to Military Lifestyle and broadened its mission to serving military families, not just wives.

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By the 1990’s was carrying dozens of pages of advertising.

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In 1985, Ed and Loretta launched Empower IT to analyze sales trends in the military market. They sold the company to IRI in 2015.