Lee Iacocca (born October 15, 1924 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American industrialist. Among the best known businessmen in the world, Iacocca is the former chairman of Chrysler and was a passionate advocate of U.S. business exports during the 1980s. Prior to leading Chrysler, he worked for Ford for over 30 years, rising to president of the company before being dismissed over conflicts with Henry Ford II.

Biography

Iacocca was born in Allentown to Nicola and Antoinette Iacocca, Italian immigrants. His given name was Lido Anthony Iacocca.

Iacocca graduated as an industrial engineer from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Lehigh, he started a career at Ford as an engineer. Unhappy with the job, he decided to pursue a career in sales for Ford. He was very successful in sales and moved up through the ranks of Ford, moving on to product development. He was involved with the design of several successful products, most notably the Ford Mustang. He promoted other ideas which did not reach the marketplace as Ford products. Eventually Lee became the President of the Ford Motor Company, but was forced to leave in 1978 because of conflicts with Henry Ford II.

After leaving Ford, Lee was courted by the Chrysler corporation, which was on the verge of going out of business. Lee was reluctant to make this move, but in the end, took the position. He rebuilt the entire company from the ground up, laying off many workers, selling Chrysler's loss-making European division to Peugeot, and bringing in many associates from Ford. He still realized the company would go out of business if it did not receive a significant amount of money to turn the company around. This led to him going before the United States Congress in 1979 and asking for a loan guarantee. While most people think that Congress actually lent Chrysler the money, in fact they just guaranteed a loan to Chrysler which meant that if Chrysler was not able to pay back its lenders, the government would. Most thought this was an unprecedented move, but Lee pointed to the government bail-outs of the airline and railroad industry, and argued that more jobs would be lost. In the end, he got the guarantee from the government.

After receiving this reprieve, Chrysler released the K-car in 1980, the small platform automobile based on design proposals that Ford had rejected. Coming right after the oil crisis of the 1970s, this small, inexpensive, front wheel drive car sold rapidly. In addition Chrysler released the minivan, based on a proposal of a key subordinate hired away from Ford, and to this day Chrysler leads in sales of the minivan. Because of these two cars, and the reforms Iacocca had made, the company turned around quickly, and they were able to repay the government-backed loans several years earlier than expected.

Iacocca was also responsible for Chrysler acquiring AMC in the late 1980s which brought the profitable Jeep division under Chrysler. Iacocca left Chrysler in 1992, and is currently working with a company making electric bicycles.

In May 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed Iacocca to head up the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., to raise funds for the renovation and preservation of the Statue of Liberty. He continues to serve on the board of the foundation.

Politically, Iacocca supported the successful Republican candidate George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election, but in the 2004 presidential election, he endorsed Bush's unsuccessful opponent, Democrat John Kerry. [1] (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/iacocca.kerry)

He is the co-author (with William Novak) of Iacocca: An Autobiography (1984). It was the best selling non-fiction hardback book of 1984 and 1985.

Iaccoca's wife died of complications from diabetes. He has since become an active supporter of research to find a cure for the disease, and has been one of the main patrons of the unorthodox diabetes research of Denise Faustman at Massachusetts General Hospital.

External link

• Lee Iacocca (http://www.nndb.com/people/988/000022922/) at the NNDB (http://www.nndb.com/)