John Betti

Class of 1948 John Betti received a bachelor’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1952, a master’s degree from the Chrysler Institute for Engineering in 1954, and completed post graduate work at the University of Detroit in 1963. After 10 years at Chrysler Corporation he joined the Ford Motor Company in 1962. He rose to the position of Executive Vice President of the Ford Motor Company for technical affairs and operating staffs, and was a director of the company. During his career at Ford he managed up to 125,000 employees. In one of his final positions with Ford, his Diversified Products Division sold $13.2 billion of Ford products, which if it were a separate company would have placed it at number 27 on the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. corporations. In 1989 Betti was nominated by President of the United States George Bush to be an Under Secretary of Defense. In that post he was responsible for acquisition, the Pentagon’s number 3 position, overseeing over $100 billion in spending annually.