Joseph V. Vittoria (1935-2021) was the Chairman and CEO of

Avis Avis is Latin for bird and may refer to: Aviation *Auster Avis, a 1940s four-seat light aircraft developed from the Auster Autocrat (abandoned project) *Avro Avis, a two-seat biplane *Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate Avis, an early aircraft built by ...

Early life and career

Vittoria was born in

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

in 1935. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

with a BS in civil engineering and from

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...

with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

. Vittoria served as the Chairman and CEO of Avis from 1987 to 1997. During his tenure, he managed the acquisition of Avis by

HFS Incorporated Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Yo ...

, helping to transition the employee owned company to a subsidiary. Prior to that, Vittoria served as the President and COO of Avis from 1982 to 1987. Vittoria served on the Leadership Council for Concordia, a nonpartisan

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

that is focused on promoting effective public-private collaboration to create a more prosperous and sustainable future.

Personal life

After his career in the car rental business, Vittoria operated a fleet of very large sailing boats that were all the largest sloops in the world at the time of their launch. His fleet included two 40m Mirabellas, and he also commissioned

Mirabella V ''M5'' is a sloop-rigged super yacht launched in 2003 as ''Mirabella V''. She is the largest single-masted yacht ever built. Ownership ''Mirabella V'' was built as part of a fleet of large sailing yachts used for luxury private charters by Jo ...

, the largest single-mast sailing yacht to date.http://www.farrdesign.com/reviews/197_Mirabella_Showboats_May92.pdf

References

1935 births 2021 deaths Columbia Business School alumni Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni 20th-century American businesspeople People from Long Island {{US-CEO-stub