Enterprise: A WWII Carrier's Name, Alamo, National and 40% of US Rentals

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Jack C. Taylor founded Executive Leasing Company in St. Louis in 1957 and renamed it Enterprise in 1969 after the USS Enterprise, the aircraft carrier he served on in World War II. His rule, take care of customers and employees first and profits will follow, became a promote-from-within system in which college graduates start by washing cars and working the counter. Low turnover and strong J.D. Power satisfaction rankings produced steady cash flow, and by 2010 Enterprise was the only investment-grade company in car rental, giving it cheaper financing for a fleet that reached 2.5 million vehicles and 90,000 employees by 2023. Today it is a $35 billion private company with about 40 percent of the U.S. rental market.

The 2007 purchase of Vanguard Automotive Group added National, aimed at business travelers, and Alamo, aimed at budget leisure travelers, under Enterprise Holdings, formed in August 2009, with shared fleets and back-end systems. Andrew C. Taylor succeeded his father, Pamela Nicholson became the first female and first non-family CEO in June 2013, and Jack's granddaughter Chrissy Taylor took over in January 2020. The company bought car sharing services, the ride matching platform Zimride in 2013 and the travel platform Deem in 2019, then renamed itself Enterprise Mobility in October 2023. In 2026 it faced protests over fleet contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

• The Taylor family donated $50 million to Washington University in St. Louis across two gifts.
• Local car share programs including PhillyCarShare, I-GO in Chicago and AutoShare in Toronto became Enterprise CarShare.
• Its Entegral software for insurers and collision repair shops routes drivers with damaged cars into Enterprise rentals.
• COVID-19 in 2020 forced it to shut car share operations in New York and Philadelphia and pull out of university campuses.
• Groups including the Action Network and an order of nuns in Los Angeles pressed Enterprise over ICE contracts with mass canceled bookings.