David Sarnoff was a Russian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 1913. He started his own radio broadcasting business in the 1920s and ultimately acquired a major share of Radio Corporation of America, which became known as RCA. In the 1930s he became RCA's president and chief executive officer, and under his leadership the company grew from a small radio manufacturing business to an international communications conglomerate with interests in television, telephones, film production, and later the development of satellites
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In 1943, at the age of fifty-three, he was appointed a four-star general by President Franklin Roosevelt and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant general. He served as director of the Office of War Information during WWII and then as chairman of the War Supply Board Executive Committee to help oversee the Allied war effort. Sarnoff retired from RCA in 1950 and died two years later.