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Lido Anthony Iacocca was born on October 25, 1924 to Nicola and Antoinette Iacocca. He graduated in 1945 from Lehigh University and received a master’s degree in engineering from Princeton University in 1946. He began his career as an engineering trainee at the Ford Motor Company in August 1946, but after nine months, wanting “to be where the action was”, he shifted to sales and marketing. This “change of heart” set the stage for his monumental achievements for Ford. In 1956 while sales were slumping, Lee, as a regional sales manager, developed the “ 56 for ‘56 ” program which enabled customers to purchase a 1956 Ford for a modest down payment and $56/month payments. The program was an extraordinary success and was adopted as part of Ford’s national marketing strategy. The program was responsible for boosting sales by an estimated 75,000 cars. This breakthrough started his rise through the ranks and by December 1960 he was at the head of the Ford division. In 1964, having anticipated the rise of the baby boomers, he was responsible for developing one of the most popular cars in automotive history – the Ford Mustang. In 1968, he repeated his success with the introduction of the Lincoln Mark III. These accomplishments led to his promotion in 1970 as President of the Ford Motor Company, “second in command under Henry Ford II”. “Never wanting to stop at success, Lee continued developing and implementing innovative and cost cutting ideas”. However, his growing popularity and success was a source of concern to Henry Ford “who began to worry about this ‘son of an immigrant’ taking over the family business”.
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