Businessman, born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. He worked for the Ford Motor Company (194678), at first in sales, rising to become president in 1970. In 1978 he joined Chrysler Corporation as president and chief executive officer when the company was in serious financial difficulties, and steered the company back to profitability. He published a best-selling autobiography (with William Kovak), Iacocca (1985), and a sequel, Talking Straight (1989).
Among the most widely recognized businessmen in the world, Iacocca is the former chairman of Chrysler Corporation and was a passionate advocate of U.S. business exports during the 1980s.
Early life
Iacocca was born to Nicola and Antoinette Perrotto, Italian immigrants who had settled in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley region.
Iacocca graduated from Allentown's William Allen High School and Lehigh University in neighboring Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a degree in industrial engineering.
Iacocca was married to Mary McCleary in 1956. Both before and after her death, Iacocca became a strong advocate for better medical treatment of diabetes patients, who frequently faced debilitating and fatal complications.
Ford
Iacocca was involved with the design of several successful Ford automobiles, most notably the Ford Mustang;
After being fired at Ford, Lee was aggressively courted by the Chrysler Corporation, which was on the verge of going out of business (at the time, the company was losing millions due to recalls of the Chrysler F platform vehicles, the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare). Iacocca joined Chrysler and began rebuilding the entire company from the ground up, laying off many workers, selling Chrysler's loss-making European division to Peugeot, and bringing in many former associates from Ford. At the time of his ascendance to upper echelon management at Ford, the company's management was almost entirely constructed of the Ford family and other White Anglo Saxon Protestants, making the appointment of Iacocca, an Italian Catholic, something of an ethnic and religious breakthrough for the company.
Chrysler
Iacocca started as Chrysler's chairman, and began a heavy restructuring of Chrysler. At the time Iacocca took over, Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy, as it was focusing most of its money on large, fuel thirsty cars that the public didn't want due to a fuel crisis at the time.
Realizing that the company would go out of business if it did not receive a significant amount of money to turn the company around, Iacocca approached the United States Congress in 1979 and asked for a loan guarantee. Most thought this was an unprecedented move, but Iacocca pointed to the government bail-outs of the airline and railroad industries, arguing that more jobs were at stake in Chrysler's possible demise.
After receiving this reprieve, Chrysler released the first of the K-Car line, the Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant in 1981, compact automobiles based on design proposals that Ford had rejected during Iacocca's tenure there. Because of these three cars, and the reforms Iacocca implemented, the company turned around quickly and was actually able to repay the government-backed loans seven years earlier than expected.
Iacocca was also responsible for Chrysler's acquisition of AMC in 1987, which brought the profitable Jeep division under Chrysler's corporate umbrella. The success of the Grand Cherokee and The Eagle Premier under Chrysler badges had the press and industry analysts convinced that AMC could have turned around, just like Chrysler did, if Chrysler hadn't bought them out.
Other work and activities
In May 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed Iacocca to head the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which was created to raise funds for the renovation and preservation of the Statue of Liberty.
In 1984, Iacocca co-authored (with William Novak) his autobiography, titled Iacocca: An Autobiography.
Iacocca appeared on an episode of Miami Vice, playing Park Commissioner Lido in episode#44 (titled Son and Lovers) on May 9, 1986.
In 1988, Iacocca co-authored (with Sonny Kleinfeld) Talking Straight , a book meant as a counter-balance to Akio Morita's Made in Japan, a non-fiction book praising Japan's post-war hard-working culture.
Iacocca left Chrysler in 1992 and currently works with a company making electric bicycles.
Politically, Iacocca supported the successful Republican candidate George W. Most recently, in Michigan's 2006 Gubernatorial race, Iacocca has appeared in televised political ads endorsing Republican candidate Dick DeVos.
Following the death of Iacocca's wife from diabetes, he has become an active supporter of research to find a cure for the disease, and has been one of the main patrons of the innovative diabetes research of Denise Faustman at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2000, Iacocca founded Olivio Premium Products, which manufactures the Olivio line of food products made from olive oil. In 2004, Iacocca launched Join Lee Now, a national grassroots campaign that will bring Faustman's research to human clinical trials in 2006.
Iacocca has been an advocate of "Nourish the Children", an initiative of Nu Skin Enterprises, since its inception in 2002.
In 2006, it was announced that Lee Iacocca has signed a deal with Simon &
During the 2006 race for Governor of Michigan, Iacocca endorsed and appeared in television advertisements for Republican challenger Dick DeVos.
Lehigh University support
Iacocca led the funding campaign to expand Lehigh University into buildings formerly owned by Bethlehem Steel. Iacocca Hall on the Mountaintop Campus of Lehigh University houses the College of Education, the biology and chemical engineering departments, and The Iacocca Institute, which is focused on global competitiveness.
"Return" to Chrysler
In July 2005, Iacocca returned to the airwaves as Chrysler's pitchman, along with stars such as Jason Alexander and Snoop Dogg, to promote Chrysler's "Employee Pricing Plus" program; In return for his services, Iacocca and DaimlerChrysler agreed that his fees, plus a $1 donation per vehicle sold from July 1 through December 31, 2005, would be donated to the Iacocca Foundation for diabetes research. Iacocca has the world's largest collection of Matchbox cars and recently donated his 1980 K-Car collection to the Stop Syphilis Soon charity auction, fetching a sum of $50,000. In the 1987 movie, RoboCop, which takes place in future Detroit, one "Mediabreak" reports an incident that took place at fictitious "Lee Iacocca Elementary School."
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