Autoblog

Ford Chairman Bill Ford hasn't been compensated for working at his great grandfather's company since May 2005, and he doesn't intend to cash in until the Blue Oval makes a sustained profit. Ford's board of directors decided that nearly three years was too long to work pro bono and tried to pay the Ford family scion, but the chairman again refused to reneg on his pay-free pledge. Mr. Ford has, however, agreed to receive payment retroactive to 2008 once the Dearborn, MI automaker achieves a full year of profitability.

It's impressive that Blue Oval Bill has foregone between $25 million and $33 million in salary over the past few years, but Henry Ford's sweat and guile made him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams before he was even born. Those of us living in Michigan would be far more impressed if Bill pledged to give up the Detroit Lions if the automaker misses its target to regain profitability in 2009.

[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

Reuters is reporting that while Ford Motor Co. posted a $12.7 billion loss last year, its new Chief Executive earned $28.18 million. And that was for four months worth of work. Alan Mulally's pay for 2006 included salary and stock options, as well as an $18.5 million bonus. The man Mulally replaced, Chairman Bill Ford, had made good on his pledge to forego compensation until the company made a turnaround, and had no salary, bonuses, or stock earnings during the first 8 months of 2006. In the grand scheme of things, $28 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the huge corporate losses Ford has posted, but hopefully Ford is getting what they are paying for with their new CEO. Only time will tell, as the automaker isn't expected to get back into the black until 2009 at the earliest.

In all fairness, Mulally's package included a $7.5 million signing bonus and Ford had to pay an additional $11 million to compensate for getting him out of his Boeing contract early. And in case some think Ford would be smart to dump him and take the company in a different direction, the EXIT package would be almost as big. If the CEO is released during his first five years on the job, his exit package is valued at $27.54 million. Mulally gets that amount if he is let go for anything other than cause. That includes being let go due to a merger or bankruptcy filing. To put it in perspective, Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields made $5.57 million last year. That included a salary of $1.25 million and something related to using a jet. And CFO Don Leclair had $4.4 million in total compensation for 2006.

[Source: Reuters]

Are you looking for a unique property with plenty of land, 5,900 sq. ft. of living space and a beautiful view of a lake Huron the Huron River? Not sure? What if we told you the house belongs to Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford? Well, if you have $3.95 Million and a desire to live in Ann Arbor, then this very well may be your dream home. The Fords moved down the street, so your children may even go to the same school. They'll be the kids with the full-time security detail and access to a corporate jet.

Mr. Ford's house has five bedrooms, a tennis court, in-ground pool, and a view that is remarkably like the one at the Henry Ford Estate in Dearborn. The house sits on 17.1 acres and has an amazing 650 feet of lake-frontage. The $3.95 Million selling price seems very firm, but since it's a Ford you can probably negotiate 0% financing.

Check out the house listing here.

[Source: Detroit Free Press via Jalopnik]

Steve Wilson, a reporter for WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit, has taken the President of the Americas for Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields, to task for the weekly flights the executive takes from Detroit to his home in Delray Beach, Florida. Fields uses a company jet for the flights, which itself isn't the issue since the trips are approved by his employment contract. Wilson, however, estimates that each weekly trip costs between $50,000 and $70,000, essentially an entire year's salary for many who work at Ford. Those high figures include the cost of flying one passenger with a crew of three, and either putting the crew up in a luxury hotel for the weekend or having the jet return to Detroit and fly back to fetch Fields before Monday.

Fields has been quoted as saying, "We are making sacrifices at every level." The person who hired Fields, ex-CEO Bill Ford Jr., surely made sacrifices. The great-grandson of Henry Ford announced he would forego any and all compensation back in May of 2005 until his family's company begins turning a profit again. Of course, Mark Fields is not a member of the Ford family and no expects him to forego a salary, which last year reportedly amounted to $3 million including a $1 million bonus. Wilson, however, clearly sees the hypocrisy of an executive asking his workforce to sacrifice their wages, health care and even their jobs while he drains the company of funds he could cleary afford to cover himself.

The weekly trips home on the company jet are seen by Ford as an incentive to attract and retain talent the automaker sorely needs to turn its fortunes around. Hopefully Mark Fields is the man for that job, and if he succeeds we won't say a word every time he boards the Blue Oval jet. But at this moment when Ford is struggling to remain solvent, even if the overall impact is minimal, the gesture of foregoing some of those expensive perks goes a long way.

Thanks to Joe for the tip!

[Source: WXYZ.com]

Bill Ford, Rick Wagoner and Tom LaSorda have been twiddling their thumbs since May waiting for the White House to confirm a date for the Detroit trio to meet with George Bush, the D.C. decider. Tentative times have come and gone, and as each one passed, the perception that the current administration cares little about the challenges facing domestic automakers continued to grow. In reality, those challenges that include health care costs and the price of imported raw materials like steel, just didn't make for good pre-election prattle.

Not a day after the midterm elections have passed, the White House has announced that George Bush will meet with Ford, Wagoner and LaSorda next Tuesday. No additional details were given about what time the meeting would take place or if an agenda of talking points had been set.

Most of us on the Autoblog team are apolitical when it comes to cars, but since the Republicans have lost control over both houses of Congress, we can't help but wonder if Detroit should instead sit down for a chat with someone like N ancy Pelosi (D - CA), the presumptive Speaker of the House, or Harry Reid (D - NV), the soon-to-be leader of the Senate's majority.

BTW - if you'd like to talk politics in the comments, feel free. Keep it civil, though, or we'll be forced to turn the comments off.

[Source: The Detroit Free Press]

The Greenbrier retreat hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers is known as something of a boondoggle in the industry, but with all the doom and gloom, we're hard-pressed to deny the automotive bigwigs a little fun. The tone of the confrence is light, with industry execs spending more time creating comedy routines than doing any actual work. Last year's event saw Bo Andersson search high and low for a Dracula costume after an opening skit referred to him as a blood-sucking vampire.

This year's Saturday Night Live-style newscast, which is a yearly tradition, showed Delphi boss Steve Miller at his funniest, even relating that the night before was so cold, Ford purchasing chief Tony Brown was seen with his hands "in his own pockets."

The fun didn't end at Greenbrier, however -- the annual Steakout, a not-so-PETA-friendly fundraiser hosted by the Detroit Press Club Foundation, will take place this Wednesday, complete with a re-do of the aforementioned newscast as well as some new stuff, including a secret video tape allegedly of the first meeting between Bill Ford and "The One," Alan Mulally (set to the soundtrack, "Endless Love"). Also slated for the dinner is the "real story" behind GM's unanimous vote to reject Renault/Nissan's merger bid -- all we'll say is that Jerry York should have held it.

Proceeds from the dinner go toward scholarships for journalism students and buying holiday toys for children.

[Source: Detroit News]

To no one's surprise, Steve Hamp, chief of staff for Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally, is bailing on the blue oval at the end of this year. The well-connected brother-in-law to former CEO and continuing chairman Bill Ford was apparently instrumental in bringing the former Boeing big wig on board. Ford hasn't announced any plan to replace him.

Hamp, who is married to Bill Ford's older sister Shiela, was brought on in early November of 2005 after Jim Vella stepped down. The then-president of the Henry Ford Museum was responsible for running Michigan's number one tourist attraction, bringing in $54 million in revenues and representing a huge public relations tool for Ford.

[Source: The Car Connection]

All right, we got up this early to get Ford's announcement first thing, so let's get to it. Ford has announced, in a nutshell, that Way Forward 2.0 will include a further reduction in its production capacity and work force combined with a "ramp up" of new product introductions. The company also announced that a return to profitability is now not expected until at least 2009.

The entire announcement can be found after the jump, but we'll highlight a few important points here. For one, the Lincoln Town Car will live on! After the Wixom, MI plant closes, production of the Town Car will move to the St. Thomas, Ontario plant. Also, the large crossover based on the Ford Fairlane concept will be on sale in 2008. In the area of cost savings, the Blue Oval has announced that 14,000 salaried-related positions will be eliminated, which is a big jump in addition to the prior 4,000 salaried positions that were cut in Q1. Here's a big one: the company is moving up its goal of reducing its workforce by 25,000 to 30,000 workers from 2012 to the end of 2008. Ford subsidiary Automotive Components Holding will also see all of its facilities either sold or closed by the end of 2008, as well.

Finally, the impression we got is that Ford is serious about shrinking. In terms of production, capacity is being reduced to 3.6 million units, 26% under 2005 levels. Market share is expected to decrease to around 14 to 15 percent and then level off, too. We now have a list of plants that will either be closed or idled by 2008, which can be found after the jump.

There's lots to chew on here folks. Check out the complete release with details after the jump and analysis will be forthcoming.

[Source: Ford]

As the week begins, many industry analysts and insiders are confident that Ford will be making dramatic steps towards increasing their efficiency and productivity. The announcement last week that Bill Ford would be stepping down as CEO and passing the torch to Alan Mulally, was the first of many actions that the automaker hopes will transform the company over the all-important, coming years.

With management shifts underway, tackling the union issue is next on Ford's "Way Forward" agenda. Thankfully, negotiations between FoMoCo and the UAW have already been settled, at least for the time being. This newest contract addresses many streamlining issues that have plagued the company's efficiency over the last several years and, after being voted on by the Local 600 workers, should take place soon.

With everyone weighing in on what will make or break Ford's future, it seems this week will bring more speculation, more engagement and, hopefully, more "bold moves" from one of the nation's most esteemed automakers.

[Source: The Car Connection]

It came as a surprise to read on Bloomberg's website that "the President and Mr. Ford are friends." We don't know why this made us do a double take, but it's nice to know that some form of direct communication is taking place between Washington and an automaker.

According to the article, President Bush phoned Mr. Ford while in route to a fund-raiser in Detroit and although Bush's spokesperson wouldn't elaborate on what was discussed, she did say that the phone conversation only lasted a few minutes. We think it's safe to assume that the topic at hand was FoMoCo's recent personnel changes.

We reported earlier on an uproar among the heads of the Big two-point-five, when they discovered that Bush would be making a campaign appearance in their home town, but had not (re)scheduled any meetings with the automakers. Judging by the information revealed to Bloomberg, the conversation between the two men sought to solidify the administration's promise of a meeting after mid-term elections.

We're eagerly anticipating the outcome of that meeting, if and when it happens.

Related Links:

• Bill Ford Jr. calls for energy summit
• Bush and automakers delay meeting
• Wagoner critical of fed's lack of action
• President set to address automakers, again

(FYI - Due to the unfortunate comments made by some readers in a related post, comments have been disabled for this article. Our apologies to those of you that enjoy a civil exchange of ideas.)