Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. (1875-1966) was an American business executive who led General Motors as president, chairman and chief executive for over three decades. He reorganized GM around a multi divisional structure with a distinct brand for each price tier, from Chevrolet to Cadillac, and introduced the annual model change and a program of planned styling updates that reshaped how automobiles were designed, marketed and replaced. Under his leadership GM overtook Ford to become the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. His management practices influenced corporate organization far beyond the car industry, and he later endowed the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.