Iacocca

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pitching his plans for the new economy, Sen. John Kerry was embraced yesterday by an icon of the old, Lee A. Iacocca, the former chairman of the Chrysler Corp. Iacocca, 79, was an outspoken supporter of President Bush in the 2000 election. He said he was endorsing Kerry this year because "We need a new CEO and a new president." "All of my best friends are Republicans," Iacocca said as he introduced Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, for a speech on technology at San Jose State University here, "and they ask me, `Are you crazy or something?

When taxpayers bailed out Chrysler Corp. in 1980, CEO Lee Iacocca acknowledged the extraordinary assistance with a sacrifice of his own. He cut his salary to a dollar a year and trimmed other executives' pay by up to a tenth. "Although my reduced salary didn't mean I had to skip any meals, it still made a big statement in Detroit," Iacocca wrote in his autobiography. "It showed that we were all in this together. It showed that we could survive only if each of us tightened his belt." Now, as the government launches a rescue a thousand times bigger, similar gestures are hard to find.

DETROIT -- Declaring, "It's time to let the younger people do the driving," Lee A. Iacocca, former chairman of the Chrysler Corp., resigned yesterday as a director and chairman of the executive committee.Mr. Iacocca's unexpected departure comes less than nine months into what was to have been a two-year board term, though he will remain on call as a consultant through the end of 1994 at an annual salary of $500,000 and perquisites like access to a company jet.In a statement, Mr. Iacocca took pains to praise his successor as chairman, Robert J. Eaton, suggesting that he was not leaving because of any dissension among top executives.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- When Robert L. Nardelli was sent packing from Home Depot in January with a $210 million exit package and a reputation as an imperial chief executive who made strategic blunders, he seemed tarnished forever. But that's not the way some big investors see him. To them, he is a former operations whiz at General Electric Co. who can bring new managerial discipline to Chrysler, and make the struggling Detroit automaker hum again. And so, in being named chief executive yesterday at Chrysler LLC by its new owners - the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management - Nardelli, 59, is being given the chance to try to bring off two comebacks: Chrysler's and his own. "It's an amazing redemption," said Michael Useem, professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee A. Iacocca, his voice cracking with emotion, bid goodbye to shareholders yesterday at what is expected to be the last annual meeting he will preside over as the company's chief executive."

DETROIT -- Chrysler Corp., once again turning outside the corporate hierarchy for leadership in crisis, announced yesterday that it has chosen General Motors executive Robert J. Eaton to replace Lee A. Iacocca as chairman and chief executive officer at the end of the year.Mr. Eaton, 52, will join Mr. Iacocca in a newly formed office of the chief executive. Mr. Iacocca will be 68 in October and plans to remain a Chrysler director and chairman of the board's executive committee.Robert A. Lutz, Chrysler's president, said he would remain as president, though he was disappointed that he did not get the top job. He had been Chrysler's chief operating officer, but that title will immediately go to Mr. Eaton, who will also be vice chairman until Mr. Iacocca steps down.

DETROIT -- Yielding to the wishes of Lee A. Iacocca, the directors of Chrysler Corp. have agreed to name a General Motors executive to succeed Mr. Iacocca as chief executive, several people with knowledge of the board's deliberations said last night.After two days of meetings in New York, the board's 10 outside directors settled on Mr. Iacocca's candidate, Robert J. Eaton, who currently heads GM's highly profitable European operations.Chrysler spokesmen and executives declined to comment yesterday on what was decided, and the company scheduled C news conference for this morning at its headquarters in Highland Park, Mich.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee A. Iacocca, his voice cracking with emotion, bade goodbye to shareholders yesterday at what is expected to be the last annual meeting he will preside over as the company's chief executive."

WASHINGTON -- There he is, in all his gesticulating, double-breasted splendor, touting his product on national television. But this time Lee A. Iacocca isn't selling cars. The former Chrysler Corp. chairman is talking plain and straight into the camera to try to convince Americans that they should buy the promises of the North American Free Trade Agreement."Let's not twist the facts," Mr. Iacocca declares in a 60-second ad to be shown in many U.S. cities beginning Sunday. "NAFTA had nothing to do with the jobs we've lost in the past to Japan or Taiwan or Timbuktu."

DETROIT -- It seemed inevitable that Lee A. Iacocca would not leave Chrysler Corp. in an orderly fashion, and now evidence of a boardroom quarrel over who will succeed him as chief executive is spilling awkwardly into the open.Members of Chrysler's board are reportedly to meet in New York this weekend in hopes of hastening the selection of a successor. The 68-year-old Mr. Iacocca has said that he will retire as chief executive at the end of this year.Speculation has centered on various combinations of the three top posts at the company: chairman, chief executive and president.

WASHINGTON -- Former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca tears into the Bush administration and the U.S. auto industry in a new book, saying America's political leaders have failed the nation and urging voters to pick more carefully next year. Iacocca, 82, who was urged to run for president in the 1980s after turning Chrysler around, says he's for higher federal fuel-economy standards, warns that Chrysler could become a "shattered remnant" if sold and offers suggestions for Detroit's automakers to turn their businesses around.

DETROIT - Former Chrysler Chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca is returning as a pitchman for the automaker, which is even bringing back his old tagline: "If you can find a better car, buy it." The 81-year-old retired auto executive, who led Chrysler Corp.'s comeback from near-bankruptcy in the early 1980s, will star in a $75 million campaign to tout Chrysler's "Employee Pricing Plus," a response to GM's popular "Employee Discount for Everyone" program. The program allows consumers to buy many 2005 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models at the same prices that employees pay. The Iacocca ad campaign was to be announced yesterday.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pitching his plans for the new economy, Sen. John Kerry was embraced yesterday by an icon of the old, Lee A. Iacocca, the former chairman of the Chrysler Corp. Iacocca, 79, was an outspoken supporter of President Bush in the 2000 election. He said he was endorsing Kerry this year because "We need a new CEO and a new president." "All of my best friends are Republicans," Iacocca said as he introduced Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, for a speech on technology at San Jose State University here, "and they ask me, `Are you crazy or something?

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. -- Chrysler Corp. ended its long battle with dissident shareholder Kirk Kerkorian by agreeing yesterday to put a Kerkorian ally on the board and to step up its stock repurchase program.In return, the 78-year-old Las Vegas billionaire agreed not to raise his stake in the company for at least five years.Chrysler also formally adopted an "anti-greenmail" policy banning the payment of a premium for shares held by hostile holders in an effort to silence them.Mr. Kerkorian's critics, including Chrysler executives at times, have contended that his intent all along was to have Chrysler buy him out so he could pocket a big profit.

The old cliche "you can't take it with you" has a painful new meaning for Lee Iacocca, one that could cost the former chairman and chief executive of Chrysler Corp. nearly $32 million.Chrysler's board, angered at his alliance with Kirk Kerkorian's attempt to take over the automaker, has refused to allow Mr. Iacocca to exercise stock options he received after retiring from Chrysler in 1992, the company said in a document filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.According to the filing, the directors determined that Mr. Iacocca violated the terms of the stock option plan by assisting Mr. Kerkorian, the company's largest shareholder, in his recent failed takeover bid for the company and in a subsequent offer for Chrysler shares that Mr. Kerkorian announced last month.

WASHINGTON -- There he is, in all his gesticulating, double-breasted splendor, touting his product on national television. But this time Lee A. Iacocca isn't selling cars. The former Chrysler Corp. chairman is talking plain and straight into the camera to try to convince Americans that they should buy the promises of the North American Free Trade Agreement."Let's not twist the facts," Mr. Iacocca declares in a 60-second ad to be shown in many U.S. cities beginning Sunday. "NAFTA had nothing to do with the jobs we've lost in the past to Japan or Taiwan or Timbuktu."

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Lee A. Iacocca says that the Big Three automakers should consider promoting federal legislation zTC to limit the Japanese car industry to a fixed percentage of the American market.Speaking at the dedication of Chrysler Corp.'s $1 billion technology center outside Detroit, Iacocca, Chrysler's chairman, said yesterday: "We've never favored a complete restriction, but we'll have to decide our collective position. We have to deal with our own self-interests. At some point, you have to decide what you stand for."

Lee A. Iacocca -- the tough-talking chairman of Chrysler Corp. -- got right to the point during his commencement address at the Johns Hopkins University yesterday, telling graduates they were buried in a "dung heap" of national debt and were going to have a hard time finding a job, thanks in part to unfair Japanese trade practices.As an example of the difficult road ahead, Mr. Iacocca said Chrysler, the 11th largest company in the nation, "will hire a grand total of 100 college graduates this year.

DETROIT -- Declaring, "It's time to let the younger people do the driving," Lee A. Iacocca, former chairman of the Chrysler Corp., resigned yesterday as a director and chairman of the executive committee.Mr. Iacocca's unexpected departure comes less than nine months into what was to have been a two-year board term, though he will remain on call as a consultant through the end of 1994 at an annual salary of $500,000 and perquisites like access to a company jet.In a statement, Mr. Iacocca took pains to praise his successor as chairman, Robert J. Eaton, suggesting that he was not leaving because of any dissension among top executives.

Official allegedly helped Neil BushA top White House official during the Bush administration intervened in a government investigation of Neil Bush, the president's son, according to L. William Seidman, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Neil Bush was investigated by the Office of Thrift Supervision on charges of conflict of interest stemming from his role as a director of Silverado Banking, Savings & Loan Association.Mr. Seidman wrote in a forthcoming book that in 1990 the FDIC's general counsel came to his office and said White House counsel Boyden Gray "has a question about the Neil Bush matter."