American corporate entrepreneur and philanthropist Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. made significant contributions to the automotive industry. For many years, he served in a variety of leadership roles at General Motors Corporation, including those of president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board. He proved deserving of each position through his unwavering commitment to and love of his work. He was a person of exceptional character who was in charge of putting into place the rules and procedures that made his company one of the most prosperous American businesses of the 20th century. His personality was ingrained with excellence from an early age; he excelled academically in his early years of school and was a gifted trailblazer from the outset of his professional career. The four-wheel drive, crankcase ventilation, and knee-action brakes were a few of his notable inventions. As a humanist and philanthropist who saw his foundation as an extension of his own life and strived to improve society, he was a wonderful business executive.
Early Childhood & Life
His parents, machinist, and financier Alfred Pritchard Sloan Sr. and his wife Katherine Mead Sloan, welcomed him into the world on May 23, 1875, in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the first of his parents’ five kids.
His father made investments in a variety of companies, including an importer of tea and coffee.
He attended Brooklyn public schools and the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for his early education, where he excelled academically.
He pursued electrical engineering after finishing school, earning his degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1895. He was the youngest graduate in his class.
Alfred Sloan’s Career
He was hired in 1895 to work as a draftsman at Harrison, New Jersey’s Hyatt Rolling Bearing Company. At the time of his hiring, the business manufactured roller and ball bearings.
When his father founded the business with one of his colleagues in 1899, he was named president and general manager of the organization. In his capacity as president, he resurrected the company by producing steel roller bearings for the expanding automobile sector.
Under his direction, his company had fast expansion in both sales and manufacturing, and it quickly rose to prominence in the auto sector.
He was named president of the combined company in 1916 after the Hyatt Roller Bearing Company and a number of other producers of automotive accessories joined with United Motors Corporation.
He was appointed vice president in charge of accessories and a member of the Executive Committee in 1918 when United Motors joined the General Motors Corporation.
He gave his job to his organization with complete attention and effectiveness. In 1923, he was elected President of General Motors.
He was chosen to lead General Motors’ board of directors in 1937. He served as the company’s chief executive officer until 1946.
In 1956, he formally left his position as chairman of the board of directors.
After retiring, he chronicled the administration of his company in a book titled “My Years with General Motors,” which was published. The book was released in 1964.
Additionally, he received the title of Honorary Chairman of the Board, which he held up until his passing.
Sloan’s Bigger Works
His role in helping his company’s great ascent in the automobile industry was one of his most important and illustrious accomplishments. General Motors expanded to become one of the biggest industrial conglomerates in the world while he was in charge.
He emerged as one of the pioneers of management theory in contemporary American industry. He was in charge of dividing up the company’s inventory into different divisions and exceeding targets while making a profit.
The Sloan Fellows, the first university-based executive education program in the world, was launched at MIT in 1931 with his support.
He is regarded as a tremendous philanthropist as well. He established the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 1934, which supports advancements in education, health care, the standard of living, and science and technology.
Awards and Successes
On December 27, 1926, he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
For his great services to the City of New York, he received The Hundred Year Association of New York’s Gold Medal Award in 1951.
He was honored with a spot in the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1975.
In Flint, Michigan, “The Alfred P. Sloan Museum” was created in his honor.
His foundation honors films about science and technology at the Sundance Film Festival each year with the “Alfred P. Sloan Prize.”
Personal Legacy & Life
He wed Irene Jackson of Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1898. They didn’t have any kids.
He had a particular relationship with Raymond, his half-brother who was 18 years his junior. The death of Raymond in the 1940s caused him much sorrow.
In 1934, he founded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a charitable non-profit organization, and he spent a significant amount of time and effort engaging in charitable endeavors. The organization supplied a good amount of money to cancer research in addition to providing grants for scientific and technological research.
He was a patient at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City when he passed away on February 17, 1966, from a heart attack. He was buried in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Estimated Net Worth
At the time of his passing in 1966, American businessman Alfred P. Sloan had a $250 million fortune. That is equivalent to $2 billion in today’s money after inflation is taken into account.
And that came AFTER he and his wife Irene gave the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation hundreds of millions of dollars to support charitable causes. During their separate lives, they gave the charity at least $300 million (she died in 1956).