AIAC PRESENTS UNITED BY HER TORCH AT THE EMBASSY OF FRANCE
For Immediate Release
Washington, D.C. – September 19, 2026 — L. M. Levie, Chairman of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) presented United by Her Torch, his original musical tribute to the Statue of Liberty in commoration of its 140th anniversary, at a reception and dinner at the Embassy of France in Washington DC. The evening celebration brought together diplomats, members of the French and American business communities, and other distinguished guests.
This presentation of United by Her Torch at the French Embassy followed the work’s world premiere on June 4, 2026, at the Foreign Policy Association’s Annual Dinner at the New York Yacht Club. The stirring musical tribute was met with sustained, enthusiastic applause from the assembled guests and with praise by French Ambassador Laurent Billi and Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau in their official remarks. At the French Embassy, the video was played continuously throughout the three hour gala.
The lyrics of United by Her Torch are found below:
AIAC Chairman’s Statement:
“One hundred and forty years ago this autumn, a gift arrived on our shores. It did not come as tribute from the weak to the strong, nor as payment from debtor to creditor. It came as a gift from one free people to another, carried in crates across a wide and restless ocean and raised by hands that believed liberty was not the property of any one nation, but the birthright of all mankind.
That gift was forged in France and raised in America. It was shaped by the genius of Bartholdi and held upright by the iron of Eiffel. But it was sustained by something no engineer could design and no sculptor could cast: the conviction that free nations are bound together not by treaties alone, but by a common hope.
Let us never forget that we did not win our independence alone. When the outcome hung in doubt, France stood with us at Valley Forge. And when France was in her darkest hours, Americans came to stand with her, at Belleau Wood and on the beaches of Normandy. The torch in the harbor is the flame of that friendship, and it has never gone out.
It did not go out when the towers fell and the sky over New York turned to ash. It did not go out when sickness swept across the world and emptied our streets. In every season of trial, Lady Liberty has stood where she has always stood, facing outward toward the sea and the world, lamp raised high, asking nothing of us except that we remain worthy of her.
I composed United by Her Torch not as a monument of my own, but as a small offering to a greater one. My life’s work has been to build bridges of commerce between our nations; with this tribute I sought to build a bridge of song. For the measure of a nation is not only what it builds, but what it chooses to remember. And the measure of a friendship is not how it holds in calm seas, but how it endures the storm.
This evening, let us honor the Embassy of France, the French-American Chamber of Commerce, Business France, and every citizen of both republics who keeps this friendship alive not in words alone, but in deeds.
From this garden, may our message reach Paris and every harbor where freedom’s light is seen: the bond between our peoples is not a relic of the past. It is a living flame, entrusted to each of us in turn. Those who came before us kept it burning through revolution and war. Now it is ours to tend, and ours to hand on, brighter than we found it. Vive la France, and God bless the United States of America.”
Mr. Levie is Trustee and Poet Laureate of The Explorers Club, Trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, a Founder of the Statue of Liberty Museum, Member of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Member of the Ellis Island Honor Society and of its Advisory Committee. He has composed poetic and musical tributes featured at NASA, The Explorers Club, the Cosmos Club of Washington DC, the East India Club of London, the Monaco Yacht Club, the Univerity Club of Washington DC, The Royal Thames Yacht Club, the Vasa Museum of Stockholm. His Ballad of Jane Goodall was recited on the floor of the U.S. Senate on November 18, 2025.
About the Embassy of the French Republic in Washington, D.C.
The Embassy of the French Republic in Washington, D.C., represents France in the United States and carries forward the oldest diplomatic relationship in American history. France was the first nation to recognize the independence of the United States, and the Treaty of Alliance signed in Paris in 1778, negotiated in part by Benjamin Franklin, brought French troops, ships, and financing to the American cause at a decisive moment in the War of Independence. That same year, Conrad Alexandre Gérard arrived in Philadelphia as France’s first envoy to the young republic, beginning an unbroken tradition of diplomatic partnership that has now endured for nearly two and a half centuries.
Today, the Embassy’s chancery stands on Reservoir Road in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, in a modern complex designed by the French architect André Remondet and completed in 1985. The Ambassador’s residence, a Tudor-style mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood, has long been a gathering place for leaders in government, diplomacy, business, and the arts. Together with a network of consulates general in major cities across the country, the Embassy serves French citizens living in the United States and advances cooperation between the two nations in foreign policy, defense, trade, science, education, and culture.
Beyond its diplomatic mission, the Embassy is a vibrant center of French culture in the American capital. Through La Maison Française and its cultural services, it presents concerts, film screenings, exhibitions, lectures, and culinary events that celebrate the French art de vivre and bring French and American audiences together. Working closely with partners such as the French-American Chamber of Commerce and Business France, the Embassy also supports the deep economic ties between France and the United States, which rank among each other’s most important trading and investment partners.
For further information, please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_France,_Washington,_D.C.
About the Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty, formally titled Liberty Enlightening the World, was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States in honor of the friendship established during the American Revolution and in celebration of their shared ideals of liberty and democracy. The idea is credited to the French jurist and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye, who in 1865 proposed a monument to American independence. The sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the statue, and Gustave Eiffel, later famous for the tower in Paris that bears his name, engineered the iron framework that supports its thin copper skin.
The statue was financed through public subscription on both sides of the Atlantic: the French people paid for the statue itself, while Americans raised funds for the pedestal, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt. When pedestal fundraising stalled, publisher Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, the New York World, rallied more than 120,000 contributors, many of whom gave a dollar or less. Completed in Paris, the statue was disassembled and shipped to New York in 1885 aboard the French frigate Isère in more than 200 crates, then reassembled on what was then Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.
President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886. Lady Liberty holds a torch raised high in her right hand and, in her left, a tablet inscribed with the date of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, while a broken chain lies at her feet. For generations of immigrants arriving by sea, she was the first sight of the United States and an enduring symbol of welcome, a meaning deepened by Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus,” which was placed on a plaque inside the pedestal in 1903.
Designated a National Monument in 1924 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, the Statue of Liberty is administered by the National Park Service and welcomes millions of visitors each year. The Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island, which opened in 2019, houses the original 1886 torch and tells the story of the statue’s creation and meaning. On October 28, 2026, the United States and France will mark the 140th anniversary of its dedication, a milestone that honors not only a great work of art and engineering, but the lasting friendship between two nations that it was built to celebrate.
For further information, please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia–New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, Ahlstrom, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.
AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, food, confectionary, beverage, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, education, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. AIAC companies are also exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial and consumer products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices, and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a leading manufacturer of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, signage and illumination structures in North America, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.
Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.
AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, the European Space Agency, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.
AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC controls and sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary. AIAC affiliate Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures, and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during natural disasters.
For further information, please see: www.aiac.com
About AIAC in France: Industry
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) has been investing in French industry for more than two decades, and France has become one of the most important countries in the group's worldwide portfolio. Today AIAC operates 42 administrative, manufacturing and distribution sites across France and its territories in Africa and the South Pacific, making the group a significant and long-term participant in the country's economy.
AIAC's strategy in France mirrors its approach around the world: acquiring industrial businesses, often non-core units of large multinational groups, and giving them the investment, management support and long-term commitment they need to grow.
AIAC's French companies have served virtually every industrial sector in France and across Europe. They have addressed diverse markets including automotive, truck, rail, aviation, space, defense, power generation, petro-chemical processing, food and beverage, heating and refrigeration, construction, agriculture, robotics, and infrastructure. In France, its customers include every major company and millions of consumers.
AIAC in France: Philanthropy
About AIAC's commitment to France extends well beyond its industrial operations. Alongside its network of administrative, manufacturing and distribution sites across the country, AIAC and its affiliates support a wide range of French nonprofit institutions in culture, international affairs, education and space exploration.
This work reflects the broader mission of AIAC's philanthropy. Worldwide, AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support nonprofit, nonsectarian and bipartisan organizations that promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts. In France, that mission takes shape through long-standing support for some of the country's most important institutions.
Culture and Heritage
AIAC supports some of France's most important cultural and heritage institutions, including the Louvre Museum, the Picasso Museum, the Rodin Museum, and La Société des Amis de Versailles, the friends' society of the Palace of Versailles. Together they represent French artistic heritage from antiquity through the modern era. AIAC also supports the French Heritage Society, which works to preserve France's architectural and cultural heritage, and La Compagnie des Mousquetaires d'Armagnac, which celebrates the traditions of Gascony and its Armagnac.
AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie has also honored France's cultural landmarks with original musical tributes, presenting The Rebirth of Notre Dame on the occasion of the cathedral's reopening and A Tribute to the Eiffel Tower for its 135th anniversary, to the Arnault family and to Business France.
Performing Arts
AIAC supports the Opéra national de Paris, one of the world's great opera and ballet companies, and Chairman Levie is a member of Le Cercle Fidès of the Opéra national de Paris.
National Honor and Civic Life
AIAC supports La Grande Chancellerie de la Légion d'honneur, the institution that administers France's highest national distinctions.
International Understanding
AIAC supports the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), one of Europe's leading foreign policy research institutes. It also supports the Alliance Française and the French Institute/Alliance Française, which promote French language and culture and strengthen ties between France and the wider world.
Space and Exploration
Reflecting AIAC's industrial role in the space sector, the group supports the International Space University, which trains future leaders of the global space community.
A Lasting Partnership with France
AIAC's philanthropy goes hand in hand with its role as a long-term investor in the French economy. Chairman Levie served as a panelist with Laurent Fabius, then French Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Prime Minister, on Investing in France at the Consulate General of France in New York on October 1, 2015. In 2023 he was a member of the 32-person US delegation at the Choose France Summit, hosted by President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. The delegation included Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla and SpaceX), Albert Bourla (Chairman and CEO of Pfizer), Philipp Hildebrand (Vice Chairman of BlackRock), John Waldron (President and COO of Goldman Sachs), James Gorman (Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley), Mary Callahan Erdoes (CEO of JPMorgan Asset & Wealth Management), Jane Fraser (CEO of Citi) and Israel Englander (Chairman and CEO of Millennium Management). On that occasion, he warmly greeted President Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron.
In April 2024, AIAC co-hosted François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France, at a breakfast and presentation at the Harvard Club of New York. He has hosted Ambassador Pascal Cagni and other dignitaries of Business France at the Explorers Club and often addresses American executives and investors about France's talent, infrastructure, and business environment.
For further information, please see: www.aiac.com/our-values
Media Contact:
Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+1 787 244 3175 (USA)
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