Alan Mulally Biography

Alan Mulally born as Alan Roger Mulally is an American engineer, business executive, and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company. On July 1, 2014 he retired from Ford Motor Company. During the late-2000s recession, Ford had been struggling but it  returned to profitability under Mulally, and it was the only American major car manufacturer to avoid a bailout fund provided by the government. His achievements at Ford are recorded in the book, American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman, published in 2012. On July 15, 2014, he was appointed to the Google Board of Directors.

Alan was the executive vice president of Boeing and the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). He started his career in 1969 with Boeing as an engineer  and was largely credited with BCA’s resurgence against Airbus in the mid-2000s.  Alan was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in 2015 .

Alan Mulally Age

Alan was born on August 4, 1945 in Oakland, California. He is 74 years old as of 2019.

Alan Mulally Family

Alan was born in Oakland, California. He is the son of Lauraine Lizette (Clark) and Charles R. Mulally, who met at a USO dance. Mulally was brought up in his mother’s hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, where he was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church. He considered Rev. Dale Turner “a mentor and an inspiration”. Alan used to sit at the front of the church to study the minister’s influence on the congregation. He said that he found himself motivated at the age of 17 by president John F. Kennedy’s challenge to send a man to the moon.

Alan Mulally Wife |Alan Mulally Children

Allan is married to his wife Jane Connell.  The couple has five children.

Alan Mulally Ford |How Did Alan Mulally Turn Ford’s Around

On September 5, 2006 Alan was named the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, succeeding Bill Ford, who became executive chairman. Just as Ford was about to announce his selection as CEO, Alan  called his Lexus LS430 the ‘finest car in the world’, making the point that Ford was not then in a leadership position.  However, he faced some criticism and switched to driving Ford models.

Alan’s first decisions at Ford was to bring back the Taurus nameplate. He stated that he could not understand why the company earlier  scrapped the Taurus, which had been one of the company’s best sellers until losing ground in the late 1990s.

Alan took over “The Way Forward” restructuring plan at Ford to turn around its massive losses and declining market share. His cost-cutting initiatives led to the company’s first profitable quarter in two years.  Shareholders Dividends were also suspended.

Alan led the effort for Ford to borrow US$23.6 billion by mortgaging all of Ford’s assets. Alan stated that his intention was  to use the money to finance a major overhaul and provide “a cushion to protect for a recession or other unexpected event”. During that time, the loan was interpreted as a sign of desperation, but is now widely credited with stabilizing Ford’s financial position, compared to crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler, both of whom had gone bankrupt during the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009.

Ford was the only one of the Detroit Three that did not ask for a government loan. Alan did testify before the United States Congress in favor of government loans for General Motors and Chrysler, discussing the impact to the economy and to other automobile manufacturers if parts suppliers were to go bankrupt in the light of a GM or Chrysler collapse. In May 2009, Ford chairman William Clay Ford, who hired Alan, said that “Alan was the right choice [to be CEO], and it gets more right every day”.

He presided over the sale of Jaguar Cars and Land Rover to Tata Motors, an Indian car and truck manufacturer in 2007. Alan said he had “no regrets” over the sale, preferring to concentrate on the Ford brand, as then-CEO Jacques Nasser was criticized in 2001 for paying too much attention to new overseas acquisitions while letting the main Ford operations in the U.S. decline. Ford received US$2.3 billion on the sale, considerably below what they paid for it under Nasser and Donald Petersen. However, analysts said that Ford would have gotten much less or might not have found a buyer if they had tried to sell it later in 2008, as Jaguar Land Rover sales subsequently plummeted due to high oil prices in the summer, causing Tata to request a bailout from the British government. Alan  also sold off Aston Martin and Volvo Cars, and reduced Ford’s stake in Mazda.

Amid mounting losses during an economic downturn in 2008, on December 2, 2008 Ford announced a proposal on, to cut Alan’s salary to $1 per year if government loans were received and used by Ford. Alan  and other industry leaders were criticized for flying to Washington, D.C. in corporate jets during hearings for government loans to Ford. During a subsequent meeting, he traveled from Detroit to Washington by a Ford-built hybrid electric vehicle, while selling all but one of the company’s corporate jets.

Alan earned a total compensation of $13,565,378 in 2008, which included a base salary of $2,000,000, stock awards of $1,849,241, and option awards of $8,669,747. His total compensation decreased by 37.4% compared to 2007.

Alan  was included in the 2009 Time 100 list due to his achievements at Ford. The entry, written by Steve Ballmer, says, “[Mulally] understands the fundamentals of business success as well as any business leader I know”.

Alan  was named Person of the Year by the Financial Times ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards in 2011.  Chief Executive magazine  also named him  the 2011 CEO of the Year by .

In 2012, Alan was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Kansas for his notable contributions to engineering and the transportation industry.

Ford announced on November 1, 2012 that Alan would stay with the company at least through 2014.  In September 2013 it was reported  that Alan might step down earlier than 2014 as he explored other roles. The board would reportedly be sympathetic to this move.

Alan resigned as CEO from Ford on July 1, 2014.

Alan Mulally Book

American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company.

Alan Mulally Leadership Style

He reflects on his leadership style and his efforts to turn around the organization. When Alan Mulally was named president and CEO of Ford, in 2006, the famous American automaker was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Alan Mulally Net Worth |Alan Mulally Salary

Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally  left the company with stock and options with him that  are worth nearly $300 million.

Alan Mulally Boeing

Immediately out of college in 1969 Alan was hired by Boeing as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and Boeing 777 projects. Alan led the cockpit design team on the 757/767 project. Its revolutionary design featured the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft, the first two-man crew for long range aircraft, and a common type rating for pilots on two different aircraft. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering and, from September 1992, as vice-president and general manager.

Later, he was named as Vice President of Engineering for the commercial airplane group. He is best  known and recognized for elevating Phil Condit’s “Working Together” philosophy through and beyond the 777-program. Mulally in 1994 was promoted to senior vice president of Airplane Development and was in charge of all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification, and government technical liaison. Mulally became the president of the Tomlin, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president in 1997.  He held this position until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Chief Executive Officer duties were added in 2001.

In 2005, following the forced resignations of Phil Condit in 2003 and Harry Stonecipher , Mulally was considered one of the leading internal candidates for the CEO position. When Mulally was passed over in both instances, questions were raised about whether he would remain with the company.

For Mulally’s performance at Boeing, Aviation Week & Space Technology named him as person of the year for 2006.

Alan Mulally Quotes

Alan Mulally Retirement

Alan on July 1, 2014 he retired from Ford , after serving as president and CEO for nearly eight years. Since then, the automaker has become more profitable than it has been in years with CEO Mark Fields at the helm. Alan joined Ford in September 2006 after a 37-year career at Boeing.

Alan Mulally Residence |Alan Mulally House

Alan Mulally the former Ford CEO bought a home in Paradise Valley’s exclusive Casa Blanca neighborhood.

He and his wife, Jane, paid $2.85 million cash for a 5,850-square-foot house behind the neighborhood’s guard gate.

The home, with four bedrooms and six bathrooms, was extensively remodeled in 2006. It features beamed ceilings and oak floors. The master bedroom has a huge closet that includes a small washer-and-dryer set. The library has floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases.

Alan Mulally Leadership Style

McKinsey: How would you describe your leadership style?

Alan Mulally: At the most fundamental level, it is an honor to serve—at whatever type or size of organization you are privileged to lead, whether it is a for-profit or nonprofit. It is an honor to serve. Starting from that foundation, it is important to have a compelling vision and a comprehensive plan. Positive leadership—conveying the idea that there is always a way forward—is so important, because that is what you are here for—to figure out how to move the organization forward. Critical to doing that is reinforcing the idea that everyone is included. Everyone is part of the team and everyone’s contribution is respected, so everyone should participate. When people feel accountable and included, it is more fun. It is just more rewarding to do things in a supportive environment.

Say, for example, an employee decides to stop production on a vehicle for some reason. In the past at Ford, someone would have jumped all over them: “What are you doing? How did this happen?” It is actually much more productive to say, “What can we do to help you out?” Because if you have consistency of purpose across your entire organization and you have nurtured an environment in which people want to help each other succeed, the problem will be fixed quickly. So it is important to create a safe environment for people to have an honest dialogue, especially when things go wrong.

A big part of leadership is being authentic to who you are, thinking about what you really believe in and behaving accordingly. At Ford, we have a card with our business plan on one side and the behaviors we expect listed on the other. It is the result of 43 years of doing this.

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