1.  Boeing Co. is the lead company behind a program called National Missile Defense, which seeks to defend the continental United States against long-range missiles.

2.  Aetna is the lead company on the Rockwell suit.

3.  Exxon Mobil is the lead company that is seeking the loan.

4.  High costs in Santos would lead companies to ship goods from other ports and in the long run hurt the workers now on strike, he said.

5.  In past years, negotiations at the companies not chosen stopped so the union could concentrate on talks with the lead company.

6.  Industry and labor experts are betting the United Automobile Workers will name DaimlerChrysler as its lead company.

7.  It is the lead company in the Dabhol plant.

8.  Like Ford, GM and Chrysler had sought to be chosen as the lead company in negotiations, the better to control the scope of the contract.

9.  Most lead companies are in the United States.

10.  Neither her mother, a machine operator at a computer factory, nor her father, a manager at a lead company, went to college.