Iacocca takes lower profile, but stays highly active.

There once was a time when it was hard to escape Lee Iacocca. He pitched Chryslers on TV, wrote best-selling books and appeared on talk shows and magazine covers. He was everywhere.

But those days essentially ended when Chrysler's board ousted him in December 1992.

Today, Iacocca, 73, lives in Bel Air and cuts a low profile, investing in a few small companies and, for the most part, staying out of the limelight.

But he was briefly back in the news last week for being named acting chairman of financially troubled Koo Koo Roo Inc., which operates 38 fast-food chicken outlets and 14 Hamburger Hamlet restaurants.

The company has taken a beating of late. It reported a net loss of $32.8 million ($1.55 a share) on revenues of $68.3 million in 1997, an even worse performance than the $12.3 million (83 cents a share) year-earlier net loss on revenues of $36.6 million.

Wall Street was thrilled with Iacocca being named chairman, with Koo Koo Roo's share price jumping 72 percent on the news. Could this be the start of Iacocca's return to the limelight? Apparently not.

He refused all requests for interviews fast week, having his assistant, Irene Di Vito, refer all calls to Koo Koo Roo. Actually, Iacocca has repeatedly declined interview requests from the Business Journal for years. He has only rarely spoken to the media at all over the past year. and even then only about his EV Global Motors venture.

Iacocca's new role at Koo Koo Roo is to oversee the dramatic overhaul of the company - including selling off the company's non-core businesses, such as Color Me Mine, closing its Arrosto coffee plant and cutting corporate staff.

William Allen, who was appointed chief executive of Koo Koo Roo last month, said Iacocca's role at Koo Koo Roo will be to work closely with other members of the new management team on restructuring the company, and to present management's plans to the company's board.

Iacocca first got involved with Koo Koo Roo in 1995, when his investment group helped the company raise about $10 million. According to the company's latest proxy statement, Iacocca beneficially owns 386,500 shares of Koo Koo Roo stock. based on the April 2 closing price of $3.06, that stake is worth about $1.2 million.

"I think he is going to do what a chairman does," Allen said. "A chairman leads the board to govern the company well. I expect that Lee Iacocca will be shoulder to shoulder with management."

Allen said that, while he expects Iacocca to be active in Koo Koo Roo's management, he does not expect him to make it a full-time job or to serve beyond one year.

Those limits to Iacocca's involvement in Koo Koo Roo are being at least partially driven by his desire to devote his main attention to EV Global Motors, based in Westwood.

The company, which Iacocca formed a year ago, plans initially to develop lightweight electric vehicles, such as bicycles and scooters, with a long-term goal of entering into the electric automobile business. EV Global Motors expects to introduce its first electric bicycle by June. Iacocca has said he expects the U.S. market for electric bikes to be I million units a year, and he expects his company to sell 50,000 bikes in its first year.

Iacocca has teamed with another onetime auto titan, former General Motors CEO and Chairman Robert C. Stempel, now chairman of Energy Conversion Devices, which will produce rechargeable batteries for EV Global Motors' bikes. EV also has teamed with Unique Mobility Inc., which will develop electric drive systems for EV's bikes and scooters. EV owns a 12.2 percent stake in Unique Mobility.

Di Vito, vice president of EV Global Motors and a business assistant to Iacocca, said the former Chrysler chief treats EV as nearly a full-time job.

"Some days he spends all day," Di Vito said. "It's full-time."

Di Vito said Iacocca, who moved to the Los Angeles area five years ago and lives in Bel Air, has ended a number of business commitments over the last several years. He no longer sits on the board of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Consolidated Cigar Holdings Inc., for example, and he has dissolved Iacocca Capital Partners, a Westside venture capital firm.

Iacocca remains heavily committed to his charitable work, particularly in the field of diabetes research. Iacocca's wife Mary died of complications from diabetes more than a decade ago.

Marge Dwyer, spokeswoman for the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said Iacocca, in addition to being a major financial contributor, visits often. "People here see him roughly three or four times a year," she said.

Lee A. Iacocca

Age: 73 Residence: Bel Air

Education: Bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Lehigh University, 1945; master's degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University.

Current positions: Acting chairman, Koo Koo Roo Inc. Founder and chairman, EV Global Motors Co.

Career highlights: Former chairman of Chrysler Corp. Former president and chief operating officer of Ford Motor Co. After 1993 retirement from Chrysler, attempted a $20 billion takeover of the auto giant with Kirk Kerkorian - a move that failed.