ProStar and the Corporate World

Does ProStar exist?

Not in real life. It does, however, exist on a list of high-tech companies in the Champions Universe 5th edition sourcebook. Since the listing was content-free compared to other heavy-hitters in the CU such as ACI or Harmon Industries, I fleshed out its background to make it a second-tier supplier to NASA during the 1960's, acquiring most of Drake-Victoria's R&D division in a business transaction during the late 1970's.

If ProStar has a CEO, then what does Julie do as Chairman of the Board?

For ProStar's corporate governance, I started out using the British model (as outlined on the Wikipedia page that I used for my primary source). Ted (and post-"Battle of Detroit", Ferris Drake IV) are responsible for day-to-day corporate operations. Julie starts as a Non-Executive Chairman, responsible only for chairing meetings of the Board of Directors, setting meeting agendas, and evaluating the performance of both the CEO and other board members. By "The City That VIPER Built," an argument can be made for regulatory compliance having been added to her portfolio based on her warning to Clint Stanton and Leo Samuel about Defense Department procurement regulations. After serving as Acting CEO during Ted's call-up for Desert Storm, her job duties start to veer closer to the description of an Executive Chairman described on the wiki page. She still doesn't do day-to-day operations, but she is the very public face of ProStar, especially when talking to people in government or leaders of other corporations.

Who took over as ProStar's CEO after Ted Jameson left?

After Ted was brought back to active duty status to take over PRIMUS at the end of "The Battle of Detroit", recurring character Ferris Drake IV is hired as ProStar's CEO. This is a position he holds in-universe for the next three decades, eventually stepping aside for Nathan Hawkins and Jackie Drake-Hawkins around the end of Julie's second term as President.

Who took over as Chairman of the Board when Julie quit to run for President?

Ferris Drake IV (again) steps into this role in August 2015. This is a role he retains after he steps aside as CEO for his daughter and son-in-law as explained in the previous answer.

What about Nichols Research?

Created from whole cloth for purposes of this series, they are basically an evil transporter-accident twin of ProStar and a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACI. The name is directly ripped off from a Real Life 1990's information technology company who really pissed me off in 1996.

Drake-Victoria seems a bit changed compared to its background in the Champions Universe. What gives?

Like ProStar, it is a fictional company listed in the 5th edition Champions Universe sourcebook and fleshed out in more detail in the Millenium City sourcebook. I change their background from "general-purpose Defense contractor" to "Aerospace-heavy contractor" by having them buy out Fort Worth-based Convair in 1953 (an acquisition which in real life was done by General Dynamics). As an amusing historical aside, this makes Drake-Victoria the prime contractor for the Atlas ICBM/Booster system used in the early years of the Space Age.

Have I made Granite Park in Plano up?

No.

Why there?

I was doing research on Plano, TX for determining where Stately Dormyer Manor was to be located, and a picture for Granite Park was at the top of the Wikipedia page for Plano. Blame Wikipedia...

Where is the ProStar building located?

Based on the various clues given over the stories (and the map here), probably toward the northeastern corner in the building where the Plano Economic Council is HQ'ed in Real Life. It has to be close to one of the lakes (references too numerous to mention), but yet close to 121 ('Expedition to Earth', when Starforce wants to move a battle *away* from Granite Park before it starts and recommends somewhere on the other side of that highway). A ground-truthing expedition to the Real Life Granite Park performed Labor Day Weekend in 2016 has since narrowed it down to the building immediately east of the Hilton Plano/Granite Park.

But I thought Granite Park didn't exist until 1999! Why does it exist in 1982?

The location choice for ProStar's HQ was made before principle writing started in 2014, at a time when I was still living near Dayton, OH. I was not aware of when Granite Park was originally built until December 2017. So, I had to do a little retcon just like I did with the Lake Lewisville Toll Bridge.

Flush with NASA money, Frank Dormyer bought a lot of land at the intersection of Dallas Parkway and SR 121 in the late 1960s (approximately the Real Life locations of Granite Park, Lagacy West, and the Shoppes at Legacy). His intent was to have a massive, all-ProStar campus for everything he was planning to do with his company -- similar to the HP grounds off of Legacy Drive southeast of Real Life Granite Park or the Texas Instruments facilities on either side of I-635 east of the US 75 exit. Those plans died with him in 1971, and the vast majority of Dormyer's land holdings got sold to other Dallas-area developers in the mid-1970s in an attempt to generate cash flow. By August of 1982 ("You All Meet in a Lab"), Granite Park exists mostly as it does in 2017 -- a strip mall of shops and restaraunts next to Dallas Parkway, a hotel, and five business tenants (ProStar, Merrill Lynch, JC Penney, Dr. Pepper, and Comstock Financial Group). The next 10 years sees the high density housing that has only now just been completed between Headquarters Drive and Legacy Drive in Real Life being built, and the rest of the land gets developed more or less when it did in Real Life.

Do you have a listing of all the signs Bob ever put at the entrance to his lab?

Alert readers will note that every time Bob's lab at ProStar is used as the setting for a particular scene, the sign he has out in front changes. Usually, it will be an obscure reference to what takes place during that scene. The definitive list is as follows:

Episode	Sign	Author's ExcuseExplanation
You All Meet in a Lab	"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"	The phrase is the supposed inscription at the entrance to Hell, as detailed in Dante's "Divine Comedy". All versions of Bob's lab are canonically in the basement of the ProStar building.
Reconnaissance in Force	"Objects on the workstation monitor are closer than they appear"	Bob has been reviewing his battlesuit's flight recorder post-battle of Pad 39, and discovers Vikon's presence at the fight
Escalation	(an advertisment for Bob's School of Quantum Mechanics)	Doesn't really go with the action in the scene. The first recorded instance of this ad online was in the Purdue "Engineer" magazine decades ago, and Bob is a Purdue alumnus with a PhD in Physics.
	"TGIF"	The scene -- and final battle with VIPER immediately before it -- takes place on a Friday. It's lame, because I couldn't come up with anything snarkier.
Masquerade	"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition."	Faux!Julie tries to have a lunch date with Bob. Bob is very suspicious because this is so out of character for Julie.
Expedition to Earth	"Warning: division by zero in progress"	Bob fires up the first stable theta-boson stabilized wormhole in human history as his Mandaarian shadow watches
Ghosts from the Past	"Please check all espionage equipment at the door"	ProStar is hosting Harmon Industries CEO James Harmon III and Amazing Man as they are reunited with the WW2 British superhero Union Jack. This is a unique scene in that we don't actually SEE the front of Bob's lab; we only hear about it after the fact as everybody comes upstairs to Julie's office.
Fields of Saguenay	"Biological experimentation in progress"	Bob and Julie's, uh, lunch date gets interrupted by an emergency phone call from the Little Elm police department.
The First Dimensional War	"Political Science is an oxymoron"	UNTIL has been expending more effort trying to arrest Bob than in fighting Istvatha V'Han. Bob is a little upset. Then Tara arrives...
What's Yours Is Negotiable	"The cake is a lie"	Well, Bob was experimenting with portals in that scene...
The Island of Shadow Destroyer	"Still safer than Muppet Labs"	The irony here is that the sign is on the floor in front of the door that has just been shattered by a lab accident
Force of Will	"Roll for initiative"	Bob and Julie watch their children in the Texas Guard fight Menton, frantically looking for anything which can be used against him.

What about Asia Palace?

Granite Park has a strip mall of botique stores and restaurants on a boardwalk between the northern lakes and SR 121/Sam Rayburn Tollway. This is within fairly-easy walking distance of where the ProStar Building is located.