These are the CEO's during my career.
Only one on this list I wish we could get back, Alan Mually. Been a full on train wreck since...maybe we can turn back time to get Joe Hinrichs to rejoin before its too late.
Harold Poling (1990–1993)
Alex Trotman (1993–1998)
Jacques Nasser (1999–2001)
William Clay Ford Jr. (2001–2006)
Alan Mulally (2006–2014)
Mark Fields (2014-2017)
Jim Hackett (2017-2020)
Jim Farley 2020- '2024' with any luck
Jacuzzi Jac, had a Jacuzzi installed on Ford property, so he could relax after a busy day. He would famously parrot management consultant lingo.
OP, if the next entry on your list is:
Doug Field (2025- )
Ford will have a much brighter future. Bet on it.
@1huy+1vQkVGuO
Don't forget about those seemingly endless "mandatory attendance" meetings with Nasser on video recordings spewing his hate at the management ranks:
'I look out over this room, and I am offended by the number of white faces I see'.
When the Explorers were turtling because of those cr-ppy Firestone tires, his biggest concern was that the news stories spelled his name correctly.
'It's JAC - NOT JACK.'
Also gave Ford: PAG - Premium Automotive Group.
At great expense opened up studios in California for Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Lincoln.
They later decide Lincoln was not worthy and brought it back to Michigan.
Nassar was also the start of Ford closing in-house testing and shifting it to the suppliers.
You can trace the start of "Quality is Job One" becoming an empty promise back to those times.
Instead of waiting for them to replace the CEO, seriously consider your long term career plans. You are the only one who'll take it seriously. Anyone in management who tells you they share that concern are only concerned as far as Fords interests and you could expect nothing more.
Ah, "Lead or Leave". Don't forget about the kids who made fun of the dried chicken lunch his mother sent him to school with. The guy was bonkers and had a vendetta against Americans. Another Billy pick...
I still remember the Nasser 'Lead or Leave' video. It was a recording of a leadership meeting where Nasser told them to 'lead or leave'. I had never heard a leadership speech like that and never have since. I thought leaders were supposed to direct and uplift, not threaten. He and David Murphy were running around telling everyone that. Guess who were the first two to get the boot? Now seeing this same behavior with current leadership with 'we have too many people' and '25% too many engineers'. Why Ford still has this type of so-called leadership is beyond me.
Trotman was pretty good too
Mark Fields was better than The Hackett and Farley.
Mulally is the one who brought in JF:
Farley was convinced to leave Toyota by Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and and Ford CEO Alan Mulally, a former Boeing
executive who led Ford through the Great Recession without bankruptcy, in 2007.
“I was in the outer lobby and I watched Jim (Farley) get out of his car,” Mulally told The New York Times in 2008. “I remember his hello, his eye contact, his questions, how articulate and genuine he was. I knew right then this was the person I wanted.”
Let’s not discard the man who single handedly made us all better potato chip bag openers. Thank you for that Bill. Millions of dollars you paid him wisely spent. Oh and let’s not forget about the very successful train station investment. Wonder how many people have and will lose their jobs, have their life’s destroys, to pay for that.
Yep, Alan Mulally was the last hope.
When they broomed Joe H. out the door, they broomed out the last hope to save the place.
Nasser, "The corporate te------t" and on down have been a disaster, with the exemption of Mullaly. The only common denominator has been Bill Ford. The buck needs to stop there, along with the BOD. If Wall Street could see what's going on within day to day operations, Ford stock would be $2 a share, If that.