Lido Anthony Iacocca was born October 15, 1924 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, son of Nicola Iacocca, a cobbler and businessman, and Antoinette Ferrotto. His parents had immigrated from San Marco, Italy, and passed on to their son valuable lessons about responsibility and running a business. Nicola Iacocca ran a car rental agency, one of the first in the country, and instilled in his son a love for automobiles.

Lee Iacocca had already decided to become an automobile company executive by the time he was a teenager, boasting that he would become a Ford vice-president by the age of 35. Attending Lehigh University, he switched majors from mechanical engineering to industrial engineering due to poor performance in Physics. He received the opportunity to work as an engineering trainee at Ford, but put it off by a year to take a Princeton University fellowship, graduating with a Master's Degree in 1946.

Starting as an engineer at Ford, Iacocca, who changed his first name to Lee when he discovered that customers had trouble spelling both his first and last name, moved to Sales and was quickly promoted up through the ranks of the Ford Sales Division.

In 1956 he devised a marketing plan for his Philadelphia division that took advantage of the then-new idea of car financing. "56 for 56" was the slogan for the campaign, in which a customer could by a new 1956 Ford for 20% down and $56 a month for three years. The campaign caught the attention of Robert S. McNamera, future US Secretary of Defense, who implemented it nation-wide, selling 75,000 more cars than normally.

Iacocca was then brought to Dearborn, Michigan Ford headquarters to head up the 1956 Ford truck marketing strategy. By 1960 Iacocca had been promoted first to car marketing manager, then vehicle marketing manager, and at age 35, succeeded in his boyhood dream, and became vice-president and general manager of the Ford Division, replacing his mentor McNamera. The campaign for the 1954 Mustang was the one that put him in the record books, though, selling 419,000 cars n the year with a advertising blitz aimed at the youth market, previously untapped.

Serving as Ford president from 1970 to 1978, Iacocca served during a time of rising gasoline prices, and became known as a manager who appreciated talent and creativity. Iacocca came into conflict with chairman Henry Ford II, grandson of the company founder, who feared Iacocca's growing power would push his son Edsel out of the company chairmanship. In 1978 Ford, after a campaign to drive Iacocca away, fired him.

Offered jobs throughout the industry as well as academia, Iacocca accepted the presidency and chairmanship of Chrysler Corporation, which had fallen on hard times. Turning to government friends for help, Iacocca influenced President Jimmy Carter into signing the Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, which critics called "The Chrysler bailout," insuring company loans up to $1.5 billion. Under Iacocca's leadership, Chrysler used the loans to boost market share and gained enough increase in sales to repay the loans in full by 1983, seven years early.

Iacocca's turn-around for Chrysler had speculation going that he would be a good candidate for President, although Iacocca had no interest in the job. President Ronald Reagan appointed him head of the committee to restore the Statue of Liberty, and Iacocca published his autobiography IACOCCA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY in 1984

Chrysler's expansion into other markets with the purchase of American Motors and Gulfstream Aerospace in the late 80's caused the company to lose ground. Also, the American recession gave the public little liking for Iacocca's 1987 $18 million paycheck, and little sympathy for Iacocca's blaming of Japanese tariffs for Chrysler woes.

Retiring in 1992, Lee Iacocca formed a partnership with Las Vegas financier Kirk Kerkorian in an attempt to take over Chrysler, a move that ended in a plethora of lawsuits and accusations of greed and betrayal by his former colleagues.

Iacocca founded in 1997 and is the Chief Executive Officer of EV Global Motors, producers of the electric bike. Iacocca aims to make the electric bike the transportation of the future. In February, 2000, Iacocca accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the Online Asset Exchange, an Internet company for buying and selling secondary and used industrial corporate assets. The response to the announcement was so great that it caused the Exchange website to have to be temporarily shut down.