Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca (/ˌaɪ.əˈkoʊkə/ EYE-ə-KOH-kə; October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) 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 and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and chairman 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 authored or co-authored several books, including Iacocca: An Autobiography (with William Novak), and Where Have All the Leaders Gone?.
What was Lee Iacocca’s Net Worth and Salary?
Lee Iacocca was an American businessman and philanthropist who had a net worth of $150 million at the time of his death in 2019. Lee Iacocca was best known for helping to develop the Ford Mustang, Ford Pinto, and Continental Mark III cars in the 60s at the Ford Motor Company. After clashing with Henry Ford II, Lee was fired in 1978. He later became president and CEO of the Chrysler Corporation, which he helped to revive in the 80s. Among his other endeavors, Iacocca co-authored books, founded an electric bike company, and did philanthropic work. He retired in 1992 and spent the next several decades focused on writing, philanthropy, and politics. Lee Iacocca died on July 2, 2019 at the age of 94.
Net Worth: $150 Million
Date of Birth: Oct 15, 1924 – Jul 2, 2019 (94 years old)
Place of Birth: Allentown
Gender: Male
Profession: Businessperson
Nationality: United States of America
Lee Iacocca Salary and Compensation
Lee Iacocca was also famous for being one of the first CEOs to take just $1 a year in salary in exchange for a higher equity compensation. In 1983 he asked the board of Chrysler to give him $1 in salary and 337,500 shares which would vest over three years. At the time those shares were granted, they were worth $4.2 million. Three years later after Chrysler made a huge turnaround, the shares had tripled in value. By the time he exercised previously-granted shares, Lee’s total 1986 compensation was $20,577,491. That’s the same as earning around $45 million today after adjusting for inflation. In the same year, the CEO of Ford earned $4 million in total compensation and the CEO of GM earned $1.5 million.
Early life and education
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 was reportedly christened with the unusual name “Lido” because he was conceived during his parents’ honeymoon in the Lido district in Venice. However, he denied the basis for his christened name in his autobiography, calling it romantic but untrue; his father, Iacocca wrote, travelled to Lido long before his marriage with the brother of his future wife.
Iacocca graduated with honors from Allentown High School in Allentown in 1942. He attended Lehigh University in neighboring Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in industrial engineering. At Lehigh University, he was a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, and Theta Chi fraternity.
After graduating from Lehigh, he won the Wallace Memorial Fellowship and went to Princeton University, where he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1946.
Iacocca then began his career at the Ford Motor Company, working at first as a Ford engineer.
Ford Motor Company
After graduating from Princeton, Iacocca joined the Ford Motor Company as an engineer. He was soon moved to sales and marketing, where his career took off. Specifically, he came to national attention for his “56 for ’56” campaign, which offered loans on 1956 model year automobiles with a 20% down payment and $56 in monthly payments for three years. Moving up the corporate ranks, Iacocca was appointed vice president and general manager of Ford in late 1960. He continued to climb the ladder throughout the decade before being named company president in December of 1970.
During his time at Ford, Iacocca helped design many successful and iconic cars, including the Ford Mustang, Ford Pinto, and Continental Mark III. Notably, the 1965 Mustang had the most successful vehicle launch since the 1927 Model A. Iacocca also participated in the revival of the Mercury brand by helping to introduce the Mercury Cougar and Mercury Marquis in the late 60s. Despite the enormous success the company was experiencing, Iacocca was fired in the summer of 1978 after clashing with boss Henry Ford II.
Chrysler
The Chrysler Corporation was nearly on the brink of insolvency in the late 70s, largely due to the recalls of its Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen cars and its loss-making European division. Courted by the company, Iacocca took the offer and got on his way to rebuilding Chrysler from the ground up. To do this, he first requested a loan guarantee from the US Congress, which he was granted. Chrysler went on to release the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries in 1981, small and inexpensive front-wheel drive cars that proved hugely popular. Iacocca also re-introduced the luxury Imperial with new cutting-edge technology, including a digital dashboard. Additionally, he brought in several former Ford associates and began working on a series of restyled minivans known as “mini-maxes,” resulting in the development of the massively successful Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan in 1983.
In 1987, Iacocca guided Chrysler in its acquisition of the American Motors Corporation, which included the lucrative Jeep division. From this acquisition came the popular Grand Cherokee, which was released in 1992, the same year Iacocca retired as president and CEO of Chrysler. However, in 1995, Iacocca partnered with billionaire Kirk Kerkorian in an attempted hostile takeover over the company, which ultimately failed. He later became a pitchman for Chrysler in 2005, four years before the company declared bankruptcy.
Other Business Ventures
Iacocca was involved in various other business endeavors beyond the automobile world. In 1993, he joined the board of the entertainment and hospitality company MGM Grand, and launched a merchant bank to fund ventures in the gaming industry. Also that year, Iacocca founded the food brand Olivio Premium Products. Later in the decade, he joined the board of directors of casino developer and operator Full House Resorts as well as the board of restaurant chain Koo Koo Roo. Additionally, Iacocca founded an eponymous company specializing in the development and marketing of electric bikes. He closed out the 90s by becoming the head of EV Global Motors.
Books
As an author, Iacocca co-wrote an autobiography in 1984 with William Novak; it was the best-selling non-fiction hardback book of both that year and the next. He went on to release the American propaganda book “Talking Straight,” co-written by Sonny Kleinfeld, in 1988. Iacocca’s final release was 2007’s “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?,” co-authored by Catherine Whitney.
