Auto industry / Business & brands
Bill Ford Jr.
born 1957 · executive chair of Ford Motor Company
Henry Ford's great-grandson, Ford's executive chair since 1999, who bought and restored Michigan Central Station as the heart of a Corktown tech campus.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 69- Birth name
- William Clay Ford Jr.
- Also known as
- William Clay Ford Jr. · Bill Ford
- Detroit years
- 1957–present
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bill Ford was born in Detroit to William Clay Ford Sr. and Martha Firestone Ford, so he is a great-grandson of both Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. He studied history at Princeton, writing his senior thesis on Henry Ford and labor, and joined Ford Motor Company in 1979. He became chairman in 1999 and also served as CEO from 2001 to 2006, when he hired Boeing's Alan Mulally to steer the company through the coming crisis; Ford avoided a government bailout in 2009. Known early on for environmental ideas, he backed the living green roof on the rebuilt Rouge truck plant. In 2018 Ford bought the abandoned Michigan Central Station, a symbol of Detroit's decline, and after a restoration costing more than $900 million it reopened in June 2024 as the centerpiece of a mobility and technology campus in Corktown. He is also vice chair of the Detroit Lions.
Highlights
- Chairman (later executive chair) of Ford Motor Company since 1999
- CEO of Ford, 2001–2006; hired Alan Mulally in 2006
- Ford bought Michigan Central Station in 2018; it reopened June 6, 2024
- Vice chair of the Detroit Lions
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 2018–present
Michigan Central Station
Closed as a station in 1988 and left derelict; Ford bought it in 2018 and reopened it in June 2024 as the hub of its Corktown campus.
Worked here · 2000s
Ford River Rouge Complex
The historic Ford complex he chose to renew in the early 2000s, including a truck plant with a planted 'living roof'.
Related place · 2002–present
Ford Field
Home stadium of the Detroit Lions, the family team of which he is vice chair.