An iridium carbene oxazoline complex was used to catalyze hydrogenations of trisubstituted alkenes to give terminal and internal 1,3-hydroxymethyl chirons. The products are accessible in all possible stereoisomeric forms. These hydrogenation do not require strongly coordinating functionalities on the substrate, and in some key cases, catalyst-rather than substrate-controlled stereoselectives are observed. It is hypothesized that these reactions would not be feasible using iridium or rhodium diphosphind complexes.