Mulally, who was appointed in 2006, played a key role in Ford's revival and, more importantly, in the enthusiastic development the company has nowadays, in spite of the global recession that pushed two rivals, GM and Chrysler, under Chapter 11 protection. Furthermore, Mulally repeatedly said the carmaker has the ability to return to profit by 2011 and, according to his recent statements, Ford is still on track to reach this goal.
"I want Alan to stay as long as he would like to stay and hopefully that is quite a while," Ford Jr. told Reuters. "Any good corporate governance dictates that you always have succession planning, and that is something we do on a regular basis," Ford said. "As a chairman that is obviously something that I spend a lot of time on."
Talking about the current status of the auto sector, Ford said that the US industry is already showing signs of recovery but still, unemployment is one major problem that must be resolved as soon as possible.
"For me unemployment is the big thing because it is hard to say the economy is getting better until people are getting back to work, and so that is something I look at very closely," Ford stated.
"We have seen over the last several months a small but steady increase in customer traffic and purchases," he said. "We feel encouraged, but we are certainly nowhere (near) yet where we would like to be in terms of the economy."
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