Yale to honor Ford CEO with leadership award

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute to Honor Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally
with Leadership Award

New Haven, Conn., June 4, 2010 - Ford Motor Company president and CEO Alan Mulally will accept the "Legend in Leadership Award" of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute at a ceremony to be held June 9th at The New York Stock Exchange in New York City.
The award will be presented to Mr. Mulally by Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, at the 62nd gathering of the Yale CEO Summit of The Chief Executive Leadership Institute, the nation's first CEO college.

Alan Mulally, dubbed "Ford's Comeback Kid" by Fortune magazine and recognized as one of TIME magazine's "100 most influential people in the world," was named the president and CEO of Ford Motor Company on September 5, 2006, succeeding William Clay Ford, Jr. Bill Ford, remaining as chairman, commented to Fortune magazine, "Alan was the right choice [to be CEO], and it gets more right every day."

Mulally accelerated and focused further the company's restructuring plan, dramatically reversing its once massive losses and declining market share while ensuring strong financial footing.  While GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy, requiring government bailout funds, Ford's restructuring was conducted with a healthy balance sheet.  Under Mulally's leadership, the company sold off Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin, took down the company's stake in Mazda, and is phasing out Mercury.  At the same time, they resurrected the revered Taurus brand, globalized the company's product portfolio, and are expanding the luxury Lincoln line.  The company's delivery of a full family of products with best-in-class quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design and value combined with a strong focus on efficient use of resources matched to real demand led to the company's report of a full year profit during 2009 followed by a profitable first quarter in 2010. Sales for virtually all Ford brands soared this spring, with the midsize Fusion doubling its sales.  This spring's sales gain tripled the industry's overall growth. Mulally's leadership also refocused the culture with a great sense of collaborative spirit through the "One Ford" strategy.

Prior to serving as CEO, Mulally served as executive vice president of The Boeing Company, and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In that role, he was responsible for all of the company's commercial airplane programs and related services. Mulally also was a member of the Boeing Executive Council and served as Boeing's senior executive in the Pacific Northwest. Mulally was named Boeing's president of Commercial Airplanes in September 1998.  The responsibility of chief executive officer for the business unit was added in March 2001.  Previously, Mulally served as president of Boeing Information, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president of The Boeing Company. Appointed to that role in February 1997, he was responsible for Boeing's defense, space and government business. Beginning in 1994, Mulally was senior vice president of Airplane Development for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, responsible for all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification and government technical liaison.  Earlier, Mulally served as Boeing's vice president of Engineering, and as vice president and general manager of the 777 program. Mulally joined Boeing in 1969 and progressed through a number of significant engineering and program-management assignments, including contributions on the 727, 737, 747, 757 and 767 airplanes.

Conference organizer, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of the Yale School of Management, commented:  "While Ford has a tremendous leadership team at all levels, Alan Mulally is a reminder of the difference that a single courageous leader can make in either building a promising new business or rescuing a great one which has fallen on hard times.  He has provided an inspiring model that not only has reignited the spirit in Ford's culture, recharged the strength of its products, and fortified its finances, but also has provided a model for encouraging the comeback of other once great U.S. enterprises and industries almost given up for dead.  As Mulally has stated himself regarding this larger mission, 'We are fighting for the soul of manufacturing. There is no reason we can't compete with the best in the world.'"
The Yale CEO Summit will be held Wednesday, June 9 at the New York Stock Exchange.  While the discussions of the CEO Summit are off-the-record, the press is invited to attend the final conference session "Reviving American Institutions: The Costs of Recovery" at 4:00 p.m. and the "Legend in Leadership Award" presentation to Mulally immediately to follow. The session and award presentation will take place in the Members Dining Room of the New York Stock Exchange at Broad and Wall Streets in NYC.  Space is limited.

The conference theme is "The Truths and Myths of the Evolving Post-American World: Getting Our Own House in Order." Distinguished global corporate leaders from across industries will engage in lively, candid discussions at this invitation-only leaders' conference hosted by the Yale School of Management.

Among the expected conference participants include: Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally; Bharti Airtel CEO Rajan Mittal; Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld; Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes; Deloitte CEO Jim Quigley; NCR CEO Bill Nuti; J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler; Snap-on Inc. CEO Norman Pinchuk; RR Donnelly CEO Tom Quinlan; New York Times CEO Arthur Sulzberger; Global Crossing CEO John Legere; Lennar CEO Stuart Miller; Nobel Peace Prize winner RK Pachauri; Austan Goolsebee of the President's Council of Economic Advisors; U.S. Treasury pay czar Ken Feinberg; Goldman Sachs legend John Whitehead; Tony Alvarez of Alvarez & Marsal; Yale economist Robert Shiller; Erin Burnett of CNBC; Alan Murray of The Wall Street Journal; Geoff Colvin of Fortune; Pattie Sellers of Fortune; and Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times - among other such opinion leaders across sectors.
Conference sponsors include: Alvarez & Marsal; CNBC; Deloitte LLP; IBM; The NASDAQ OMX Educational Foundation; North Highland; Russell Reynolds Associates; and UPS.
The "Legend in Leadership Award" was created 20 years ago to honor current and former CEOs who serve as living legends to inspire chief executives across industries, sectors, and nations. Past winners of the award include: Xerox Chairman Anne Mulcahy;  Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani; Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Robert Iger of The Walt Disney Company; Stephen Schwarzman of The Blackstone Group; Roger Enrico of PepsiCo; John Pepper of Procter & Gamble; Don Keough of The Coca-Cola Co.; McKinsey founder Marvin Bower; Jim Kelly of UPS; Vanguard founder Jack Bogle; Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon; Charlotte Beers of J. Walter Thompson; Richard Teerlink of Harley-Davidson; Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson; financier Wilbur Ross; and Lou Gerstner of IBM.
The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute was founded in 1989 to provide original research on top leadership and lively, current educational forums through peer-driven learning for accomplished leaders across a range of sectors. Visit<http://www.ceoleadership.org/> the Yale CELI website for more information.

For an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, or to register for the Legend in Leadership Award presentation ceremony and the final conference session "Reviving American Institutions: The Costs of Recovery," please contact Tabitha Wilde, 203-432-6010; tabitha.wilde@yale.edu, or Bonnie Blake: 203-915-4783; bonnie.blake@yale.edu.