orig. Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen
born March 25, 1879, Copenhagen, Den.
died April 27, 1948, Detroit, Mich., U.S.
Danish-U.S. industrialist.
He immigrated to the U.S. in 1900. In 1914 he began supervising Ford Motor Co. assembly plants and directed the firm's construction of submarine patrol boats and other war matériel in World War I. He joined General Motors Corp. in 1922 and became president in 1937. He was appointed director of industrial production for the National Defense Research Committee and directed production of war matériel as head of the U.S. Office of Production Management.