Frederic Garrett Donner (October 4, 1902 – February 28, 1987) was chairman and CEO of the

General Motors Corporation The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

from September 1, 1958, to October 31, 1967. Frederic G. Donner was born in Three Oaks Michigan, the son of an accountant, on October 4, 1902. He graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

with a degree in economics and worked briefly for a Chicago accounting firm.

Career at GM

He joined General Motors's New York staff as an accountant in 1926, and worked there for 32 years.Biography
Frederic G. Donner Papers 1921-198
Finding Aid
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Accessed May 19, 2009. He became Assistant Treasurer in 1934 and in 1941, at 38, he became one of the youngest GM executives ever to reach a vice-presidency. In 1956 he was named executive vice president for finance. He served as an officer of General Motors from 1941 until 1958, when he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Donner presided over a major reorganization of GM's Board of Directors to include more representation from outside the corporation. During his tenure GM achieved record sales and profits.

Later Career at GM

He was at the helm when GM expanded its product line with 12 new passenger cars, including the

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, Chevelle,

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Century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

Riviera ''Riviera'' () is an Italian word which means "coastline", ultimately derived from Latin , through Ligurian . It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria, in the form ''Riviera ligure'', then shortened in English. The two areas ...

Camaro The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro share ...

Pontiac LeMans The Pontiac LeMans is a model name that was applied to subcompact- and intermediate-sized automobiles marketed by Pontiac from 1961 to 1981 (1983 in Canada) model years. Originally a trim upgrade based on the Tempest, it became a separate mod ...

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, and

Eldorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

. Donner was the author of ''The worldwide industrial enterprise; its challenge and promise.'' Donner was inducted into the

Automotive Hall of Fame The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to au ...

in 1994.Automotive Hall of Fame
page. Accessed May 19, 2009.

References

1902 births 1987 deaths American manufacturing businesspeople Businesspeople from Michigan University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni 20th-century American businesspeople American chief executives in the automobile industry General Motors former executives {{US-business-bio-1900s-stub