Lee Iacocca Category: Person Wikipedia: Lee Iacocca Born: 15 October 1924 in Allentown, Pennsylvania Died: 2 July 2019 Full Name: Lido Anthony Iacocca Description: A former executive in the Ford Motor Company and later CEO of Chrysler Corporation. He is credited with the development of the Ford Mustang in the 1960s, Ford Pinto in the 70s, and the revival of Chrysler in the 80s. Page Sections: Bibliography · Biography · Article Index

Bibliography

Biography

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Automotive Industries page on X June 2024, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca was an American automobile executive best known for the development of the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s. He was president of Chrysler from 1978 to 1991 and chairman and CEO from 1979 until his retirement at the end of 1992. He was one of the few executives to preside over the operations of two of the United States' Big Three automakers.

Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Nicola Iacocca and Antonietta Perrotta, Italian Americans from San Marco dei Cavoti, who settled in the steel producing region of the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania. Members of his family opened a restaurant, Yocco's Hot Dogs, which has since grown to include four popular store locations in Allentown and its suburbs.

Iacocca joined Ford Motor Company in August 1946. After a brief stint in engineering, he asked to be moved to sales and marketing, where his career flourished.

Iacocca participated in the design of several successful Ford automobiles, most notably the Ford Mustang, the Continental Mark III, the Ford Escort and the revival of the Mercury brand in the late 1960s, including the introduction of the Mercury Cougar and Mercury Marquis. He promoted other ideas that did not reach the marketplace as Ford products. These included cars ultimately introduced by Chrysler – the K car and the minivan.

Eventually, he became the president of the Ford Motor Company, but he clashed with Henry Ford II. He was fired on July 13, 1978, even though the company posted a $2 billion profit for the year.

Iacocca was strongly courted by Chrysler at a time when the company appeared to be on the verge of going out of business and had just sold its loss-making Chrysler Europe division to Peugeot in an effort to generate cash because the company was losing millions already in North America.

Iacocca joined Chrysler and began rebuilding the entire company from the ground up and bringing in many former associates from Ford.

Also from Ford, Iacocca brought to Chrysler the "Mini-Max" project, which, in 1983, bore fruit in the highly successful Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager.

In May 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed Iacocca to head the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which was created to raise funds for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and the renovation of Ellis Island. Iacocca continued to serve on the board of the foundation until his death.

Iacocca authored or co-authored several books, including Iacocca: An Autobiography (with William Novak), and Where Have All the Leaders Gone?.

Article Index

Date	Article	Details
1 November 2007	Lee Iacocca Endorses Bill Richardson for President Former Chrysler CEO cites Richardson's leadership, management experience as primary factors behind endorsement.	Press Release (text) Publisher: Governor Bill Richardson Dateline: Santa Fe, New Mexico Topic: Lee Iacocca