The man who would become the Grand Director was a Captain America fanboy by the time when the hero got frozen. During the fifties, he found notes of the Super-Soldier serum formula and made a deal with the US governmet to become the new Captain America.
Besides being subjected to the serum, the man changed his name to Steve Rogers and underwent plastic surgery to resemble his hero. He also had a sidekick, Jack Monroe, as his own "Bucky". However, since he used the Super-Soldier serum without the stabilizing addition of the Vita-Rays, the new Captain America gradually went insane after several missions, and began attacking anyone he thought might be a communist enemy. He and Monroe were captured by the FBI and put into suspended animation.
This "50's Captain America" and his sidekick got free of their suspended animation in the present day, and faced the original Captain America and Falcon. The 50's Captain America would later be brainwashed into leading the Neo-Nazi group National Force under the name Grand Director.