Lee Iacocca

Biography

Lido Anthony 'Lee' Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on 15 October 1924. He joined Ford as an engineer in August 1946 and soon moved into sales and marketing; his '56 for '56' financing campaign for the 1956 models made his name, and on 10 November 1960 he became vice-president and general manager of the Ford Division.

In the 1960s he helped develop the Ford Mustang. In 1968 he proposed the small, economical car that became the Pinto, built from the 1971 model year, and on 10 December 1970 he became president of Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford II fired him on 13 July 1978, in a year when Ford made a large profit.

In 1979 Iacocca became chairman and chief executive of Chrysler, which obtained a US government loan guarantee that year. The K-cars — the Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant — arrived in 1981 and the Chrysler minivan in late 1983, and in 1987 Chrysler bought American Motors, bringing Jeep into the company. From 1982 he also headed the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation. He retired at the end of 1992 and died in Bel Air on 2 July 2019.