Alfred P. Sloan

American businessman (1875-1966)

Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry.

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About the Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr.was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. Sloan, first as a senior executive and later as the head of the organization, helped GM grow from the 1920s through the 1950s, decades when concepts such as the annual model change, brand architecture, industrial engineering, automotive design (styling), and planned obsolescence transformed the industry, and when the industry changed lifestyles and the built environment in America and throughout the world.

Sloan wrote his memoir, My Years with General Motors, in the 1950s. Like Henry Ford, the other “head man” of an automotive colossus, Sloan is remembered with a complex mixture of admiration for his accomplishments, appreciation for his philanthropy, and unease or reproach regarding his attitudes during the interwar period and World War II.