Alexander Dodson Rhea (10 May 1919 – 1 September 2000) was an American

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

who occupied a series of senior roles with

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

in the decades following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Between 1949 and 1955 he was treasury and managing director with General Motors de Venezuela based in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

before returning to North America. Between 1968 and 1970 he was managing director of General Motors' Australian division,

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...

. In September 1970 GM's British based

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

division announced that their £64,000-a-year chief executive, David Hegland had been placed on "special leave of absence" a month after the division announced its worst ever half-year trading loss, and Rhea took over the position of managing director at Vauxhall, a position which he held until 1974. Alexander Rhea III was the son of Alexander D. Rhea Jr and his wife Annie. Rhea himself married Suzanne Menocal in 1945: the marriage produced one recorded son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhea, Alexander 1919 births 2000 deaths General Motors executives Holden executives 20th-century Australian businesspeople 20th-century English businesspeople