Iacocca Biography
Bold, brash, direct, determined, innovative – all words used to describe Lehigh University alumnus Lee Iacocca. Iacocca, whose name became a household word in the 1980s after he engineered a turnaround of the Chrysler Corporation, one of America’s oldest and largest companies, served for decades as an automotive industry executive, leading both the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler.
Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1924. The son of Italian immigrants, Iacocca graduated from Allentown High School, and attended Lehigh University, entering in the fall of 1942. He worked hard at Lehigh,
pursuing his degree first in mechanical engineering, and later in industrial engineering, completing it in 8 semesters by
attending throughout the calendar year.
Upon graduation from Lehigh in 1945, Iacocca was offered a much-coveted position at the Ford Motor Company, which at that time appointed only one individual from each of fifty colleges and universities. Shortly thereafter, he found that he was also awarded a prestigious Wallace Memorial Fellowship at Princeton University. His dogged persistence enabled him to benefit from both opportunities, and he persuaded Ford to defer his appointment for a year.
Iacocca began his career as a student engineer at Ford. However, it was when he transferred his focus from engineering to business that his career took off, and he rose through the ranks at Ford, ultimately being appointed President of the automotive giant. During his tenure at Ford, Iacocca was credited with developing the Ford Mustang. Seeking a car design that could be mass-produced inexpensively and have universal appeal, he collaborated with colleagues in engineering,
marketing, and research. He was promoted to Vice President of the Corporate Car and Truck division, and then eventually
President in 1970. Working in this role was challenging, and eventually Henry Ford II let Iacocca go in 1978.
Fortunately, an opportunity at the Chrysler Motor Corporation found Iacocca available to take the helm as President, and shortly thereafter, Chairman of the Board. Chrysler was in a precarious position at that time, teetering on the brink of
bankruptcy. It was Iacocca’s bold initiative to solicit and subsequently accept a ten-year loan guarantee of over $1.2 billion from the Federal Government. It was even more remarkable that he was able to ensure that Chrysler paid off all the loans in only three years.
During his tenure at Chrysler, many innovations were released: a production convertible; the minivan; the K-Cars (which were named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year in 1981). Iacocca retired from the Chrysler Corporation in 1992.
Throughout his life, Lee Iacocca has led many fund-raising initiatives. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to chair the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission and Foundation to ensure that Lady Liberty would be
restored and a museum of immigration opened. He has served as a tireless champion for diabetes research, establishing The Iacocca Family Foundation, which funds innovative and promising diabetes research programs and projects that seek a cure for the disease and alleviate complications caused by it. He has served as a tireless champion of some of Lehigh’s educational initiatives, including programming for the Mountaintop Campus and Iacocca Institute.
Iacocca is the author of four books: Iacocca: An Autobiography, one of the best-selling non-fiction hard cover books in 1984 and 1985 and republished in 2007, Talking Straight (1988), "I Gotta Tell You": Speeches of Lee Iacocca (1994), and most recently, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (2007).