William Clay Ford Jr. (born May 3, 1957) is an American businessman, serving as executive chair of

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

. The great-grandson of company founder

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...

, Ford joined the board in 1988 and has served as chair since January 1999. Ford also served as the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, and COO until turning over those roles to former

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

executive

Alan Mulally Alan Roger Mulally (born August 4, 1945) is an American aerospace engineer and manufacturing executive. He was the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes from 1998 to 2006, and later as president and chief executive officer of the Ford Motor Company ...

in September 2006. Ford is also the vice chairman of the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

franchise. Ford serves as a chairman of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.

Early life and education

Ford was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, the great-grandson of Henry Ford I and great-grandson of Harvey S. Firestone. His father was

William Clay Ford Sr. William Clay Ford Sr. (March 14, 1925 – March 9, 2014) was an American businessman who was on the boards of Ford Motor Company and the Edison Institute. Ford owned the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 until hi ...

and his mother was Martha Firestone. On his mother's side, his grandparents were Harvey S. Firestone Jr. and Elizabeth Parke. On his father's side, his grandparents were Edsel Ford I and Eleanor Lowthian Clay.

Edsel Ford II Edsel Bryant Ford II (born December 27, 1948) is the great-grandson of Henry Ford I, grandson of Edsel Ford I, and the only son of Henry Ford II. He served as a member of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company for 33 years before announci ...

, son of

Henry Ford II Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), commonly known as Hank the Deuce, was an American businessman in the automotive industry. He was the oldest son of Edsel Ford I and oldest grandson of Henry Ford. He served as president ...

and also a board member, is his first cousin. Ford has three sisters: Martha Morse (who has 3 children),

Sheila Ford Hamp Sheila Ford Hamp ( Sheila Firestone Ford; born October 31, 1951) is an American businesswoman and football executive. A descendant of both the Ford and Firestone families, she is the principal owner and chairwoman of the Detroit Lions of the ...

(who has 3 children), and Elizabeth Kontulis. He, like his great-grandfather Henry Ford, is of mainly Irish, English, and Belgian descent. Ford graduated from the

Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a private college-preparatory day and boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut. It educates approximately 600 students in grades 9–12, plus postgraduates. Founded in 1891, it was one of the first English-style boardi ...

in Connecticut in 1975. He then attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

and graduated with an A.B. in history in 1979 after completing a 105-page long senior thesis titled "

and Labor: A Reappraisal." While a student at Princeton, Ford was president of the

Ivy Club The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Club culture The club is described by F. Scott Fitzgerald in '' This Side of Paradise'' ( ...

and played on the Princeton rugby team. In 1984 he received an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

in management as a

Sloan Fellow The Sloan Fellows program is a middle and senior-career master's degree program in general management and leadership offered at MIT, Stanford University, and London Business School (LBS). Initially supported by a grant from Alfred P. Sloan, fo ...

from the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree progra ...

Career

He joined Ford in 1979 and held a variety of positions, beginning in product development and on the financial staff, a grooming ground for future executives. He served several years as a mid-ranking executive in product development. He also briefly headed the Climate Control Division (since divested from the company as part of the

Visteon Visteon Corporation (VC) is an American global automotive electronics supplier based in Van Buren Township, Michigan. Visteon designs, engineers, and manufactures vehicle cockpit electronics products, connected car services and electrification p ...

spinoff). At the time of the Ford 2000 reorganization, he was in charge of heavy truck operations.

Corporate governance

Ford gave up an executive position in heavy truck program management to become chairman of the finance committee on the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

, a non-executive corporate governance position. He was elected chairman of the board in September 1998 and took office on January 1, 1999. Ford added the title of

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

on October 30, 2001, following the ouster of then-CEO

Jacques Nasser Jacques Albert Nasser (Arabic: جاك نصر; born 12 December 1947) is a Lebanese Australian American business executive and philanthropist. Known for a management career at Ford Motor Company spanning several decades and continents, from 19 ...

. With the retirement of Ford

and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

Jim Padilla in April 2006, Bill Ford assumed those roles as well. On September 5, 2006, Ford announced that he was stepping down as president and CEO, naming former

senior executive

as his replacement. Ford continues as the company's executive chairman. At the time of his stepping down, Ford was ranked 264th on ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

list of top-earning CEOs, at $10 million per year.

Business developments

In 2000, he announced that the company would achieve a 25% improvement in

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

in the company's light truck fleet, including SUVs, by mid-decade. Under his direction,

made technological progress toward improving fuel efficiency, with the introduction of the

Hybrid Electric A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that couples a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) with one or more electric engines into a combined propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain, which has i ...

Escape Escape or Escaping may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Escape'' (1928 film), a German silent drama film * ''Escape!'' (film), a 1930 British crime film starring Austin Trevor and Edna Best * ''Escape'' (1940 film), starring Robert Taylor and ...

, the most fuel-efficient SUV on the market, achieving 36 mpg (EPA) in city driving. The Escape's platform mates

Mercury Mariner The Mercury Mariner is a compact crossover SUV that was introduced in 2005. It is a sibling of the Mazda Tribute and Ford Escape, although it is more upmarket than the other two. The Mariner is Mercury's first car-based SUV, and is slotted be ...

and

Mazda Tribute The (''Code J14'') is a compact SUV made by Japanese automaker Mazda from 2000 to 2011. It was jointly developed with Ford Motor Company and based on the front-wheel drive Mazda 626 platform, which was in turn the basis for the similar Ford Esc ...

were also scheduled to receive hybrid-electric powertrain options, along with other upcoming vehicles in the Ford product line including the

Ford Fusion The Ford Fusion is an automobile nameplate by Ford. * Ford Fusion (Americas), mid-size car produced between the 2006 and 2020 model years ** Ford Fusion Hybrid, gasoline-electric hybrid powered version ** Ford Fusion Energi, plug-in hybrid ...

and

Mercury Milan The Mercury Milan is a mid-size car manufactured by Ford Motor Company, Ford and marketed by its Mercury (automobile), Mercury division of Ford Motor Company — as a badge engineering, rebadged variant of the Ford Fusion (Americas), Ford Fusio ...

. Ford announced that half of the vehicle lineup would be available with advanced hybrid-electric powerplant options by 2010, although the company's earlier pledge to build 250,000 hybrid vehicles a year by 2010 proved to be overly optimistic and had to be abandoned. Ford also continued to study

Fuel Cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

-powered electric powertrains and demonstrated hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine technologies, as well as developing the next-generation hybrid-electric systems. In addition to the Ford Escape, Hybrid Escape, Mercury Mariner, and Mazda Tribute, Ford marketed high efficiency crossover SUVs such as the

Ford Freestyle The Ford Freestyle is a crossover utility vehicle that was sold by Ford from 2005 to 2009. Largely marketed as the successor to the Ford Taurus station wagon, the Freestyle was the CUV counterpart of the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego ...

, the Volvo XC70 and the

Volvo XC90 The Volvo XC90 is a Executive car, mid-size luxury SUV manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars since 2002 and now in its second generation. The first generation was introduced at the North American International Auto Show#2002, 2002 North Ameri ...

. Ford also developed new crossover SUVs, such as the

Ford Edge The Ford Edge is a crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company introduced for the 2007 model year as the first mid-size CUV marketed by Ford in North America; now in its third generation. Deriving its name from a trim pack ...

Lincoln MKX The Lincoln MKX is a mid-size luxury SUV#Luxury SUV, luxury crossover SUV manufactured by Ford Motor Company and marketed its Lincoln Motor Company, Lincoln brand over two generations, as a badge engineering, rebadged variant of the Ford Edge cro ...

, and

Mazda CX-7 The Mazda CX-7 is a mid-size crossover SUV from Mazda, and is the production version of the MX-Crossport concept car. It was shown publicly for the first time at the 2006 LA Auto Show in January. Production officially began on February 20, 2006 ...

. Ford expanded its lineup of

flexible-fuel vehicle A flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) or dual-fuel vehicle (colloquially called a flex-fuel vehicle) is an alternative fuel vehicle with an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol f ...

alternative fuel vehicle An alternative fuel vehicle is a motor vehicle that runs on alternative fuel rather than traditional petroleum-based fossil fuels such as gasoline, petrodiesel or liquefied petroleum gas (autogas). The term typically refers to internal combustio ...

s, and dual-fuel vehicles. Flexible fuel vehicles can operate on a range of fuel mixtures – such as ethanol-gasoline blends ranging from pure gasoline to

E85 E85 is an abbreviation typically referring to an ethanol fuel blend of 85% ethanol fuel and 15% gasoline or other hydrocarbon by volume. In the United States, the exact ratio of fuel ethanol to hydrocarbon may vary according to ASTM 5798 tha ...

(85%

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

, 15% gasoline). Alternative fuel vehicles operate on non-petroleum fuels, such as

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...

(CNG),

propane Propane () is a three-carbon chain alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes liquid when compressed for transportation and storage. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum ref ...

, and hydrogen. Dual fuel vehicles generally have two fuel tanks – one for compressed natural gas or propane, and another for regular gasoline – with a selector switch to choose between them. Vehicles using those fueling alternatives were in test fleets, for example as taxis and shuttle buses, and some were available for sale to the public. Ford was committed to sell 250,000 alternative and flexible fuel vehicles – the majority of which would be designed to operate on ethanol-gasoline blends such as

– in 2006. Speaking at conference in November 2000 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Ford suggested that the company might one day offer a service where it owns vehicles and makes them available to people when they need access to them. Market competition, health care, and raw material costs led Ford to announce a second restructuring for its North American operations in four years. Ford's restructuring plan, dubbed " The Way Forward", reversed a $1.6 billion loss during 2009 in its North American operations. The company returned to profitability in 2010.

Fontinalis Partners

Ford has been a vocal advocate for improvements to be made in all modes of global transportation, having stated that governments and private industry would need to rethink transportation infrastructure and technology as the global population expands and the existing infrastructure is unable to keep pace. In January 2010, he announced the launch of a strategic investment firm, Fontinalis Partners, with the purpose of investing in innovative companies developing next-generation mobility solutions. Ford co-founded the firm with Ralph Booth (chairman and CEO of Booth American Company and a media and telecom investor), Mark Schulz (former head of Ford Motor Company's international operations), Chris Cheever, and Chris Thomas.

Personal life

Ford is married to Lisa Vanderzee Ford, and they have four children. He is first cousin to

Alfred Ford Alfred Brush Ford (born 1950), also known as Ambarish Das (), is an American businessman and the great-grandson of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company. He joined the ISKCON, a Vaishnava Hindu group in 1975. Ford is the chairman of the ...

. Ford has been a vegetarian since 1990, and adopted a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

diet in 2010.

References

External links

Fontinalis Partners Biography

William Ford Jr.'s campaign contributions

Bill Ford's ''The Way Forward'' speech – 23 Jan 2006

A lengthy ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

'' article (2007) profiling Bill Ford and the 81-member family. * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, William Clay Jr. 1957 births Living people American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives in the automobile industry American chief executives of manufacturing companies American chief operating officers American male taekwondo practitioners American philanthropists Arena Football League executives Businesspeople from Detroit Firestone family Ford executives Family of Henry Ford Hotchkiss School alumni MIT Sloan Fellows MIT Sloan School of Management alumni Princeton University alumni Detroit Lions executives Detroit Lions owners