Lelio "Les" Marino was a Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 entrepreneur. Born in Chieti

Chieti

Chieti is a city and comune in Central Italy, 200 km northeast of Rome. It is the capital of the Province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, he emigrated

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

 to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1958. He co-founded construction company Modern Continental

Modern Continental

Modern Continental is a construction company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was involved in the Boston "Big Dig" Central Artery/Tunnel Project. On June 23, 2008, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in Boston.-History:...

 in 1967 with business partner Kenneth Anderson, and grew it into a billion-dollar group of companies with interests in restaurants, marinas, and transportation services in addition to the core construction business.