Neil H. McElroy
Neil Hosler McElroy ( born October 30, 1904 in Berea, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, † November 30, 1972 in Cincinnati, Ohio) was an American businessman and politician.
The trained Business Administration and worked in marketing since 1925 with Procter & Gamble. His famous memo from 1931 led to the development of the concept of brand management (branding ), whose main objective is to differentiate one's product from competitors' products or their own companies to differentiate themselves from competitors. In 1948, he became president of the company.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed the McElroy previously not politically active in 1957 as a surprising sixth U.S. Secretary of Defense in his cabinet. McElroy took the view that the relatively large freedom enjoyed the research and development department at Proctor & Gamble, was critical to the success of the company. During his tenure, therefore, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA ) was founded, as its known and most successful project, the ARPANET can be viewed, from which emerged the Internet today.
On December 1, 1959 McElroy resigned and was chairman of the board of Procter & Gamble. He died in 1972 in Cincinnati.