assets. In April 1919, two naval officers, Admiral H. G. Bullard and Commander S. C. Hooper, met with GE president, Owen D. Young and requested he suspend the pending alternator sales to the Marconi companies. This move would leave General Electric without a buyer for its transmitters, so the officers proposed that GE purchase American Marconi, and use the assets to form its own radio communications subsidiary. Young consented to this proposal, which, effective November 20, 1919, transformed American Marconi into the Radio Corporation of America. The decision to form the new company was promoted as a patriotic gesture. The corporate officers were required to be citizens of the United States and a majority of the company stock needed to be held by U.S. citizens. Upon its founding, RCA was the largest radio communications firm in the United States. Owen Young became the chairman of the board of the new company and former American Marconi vice president and general manager E. J. Nally become RCA's first president. Most of the former American Marconi staff continued to work for RCA. Nally was succeeded by Major General James G. Harbord, who served as RCA president from 1922 to 1930. Harbord replaced Owen Young as chairman of the board on January 3, 1930. David Sarnoff, who was RCA's founding general manager, became its third president on the same day. RCA worked closely with the federal government and felt it deserved to maintain its predominant role in U.S. radio communications. At the company's recommendation, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Rear Admiral Bullard "to attend the stockholders' and director's meetings... in order that he may present and discuss informally the Government's views and interests". The radio industry had been making technical advances, particularly in the area of vacuum tube technology and GE needed access to additional patents before its new subsidiary could be fully competitive. During this time American Marconi had been steadily falling behind others in the industry. The two companies entered into negotiations which resulted in a series of mutually beneficial cross-licensing agreements between the themselves and various other companies in the industry. On July 1, 1920, an agreement was made with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), which purchased 500,000 shares of RCA, although it would divest these shares in early 1923. The United Fruit Company held a small portfolio of radio patents and signed two agreements in 1921. GE's traditional electric