Lee Iacocca

Iacocca joined Chrysler in 1978 after Ford fired him, and found a company heading for bankruptcy. He won 1.5 billion dollars of federal loan guarantees in 1979, cut his own salary to one dollar, closed plants and squeezed concessions from workers and suppliers. The K-car platform and then the minivan, partly developed at Ford before him, restored profits, and Chrysler repaid the loans early in 1983. Tens of thousands of jobs went along the way.