Not many CEOs become household names. Looking at the current Fortune 100, I came up with just three: Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Michael Dell of Dell, the latter only because I stare at a Dell laptop all week.
One of the first CEOs to truly become a household name was Lee Iacocca. He died July 2 at age 94. Only in America could the son of Italian immigrants—his father ran a hot dog stand—rise to lead two of the nation’s largest manufacturers, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. (now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, or FCA). Iacocca helped create the iconic Ford Mustang, and he saved Chrysler from bankruptcy in 1979.