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Donald Petersen | |
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 Donald E Petersen portrait painting by Michele Rushworth | |
| Born | September 4, 1926 |
| Alma mater | University of Washington (B.S./M.E.) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Donald Eugene Petersen (born September 4, 1926) is an American businessman who was employed by the Ford Motor Company for 40 years, most notably as its chief executive officer from 1985 to 1990.
Donald Eugene Petersen was born in Pipestone, Minnesota. Petersen served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and the Korean War. He received his B.S./M.E. from the University of Washington in 1946. [1] He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. [2]
Donald E. Petersen joined Ford in 1949 after receiving his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to his election as chairman, Petersen was President and COO (chief operating officer) from March 13, 1980. [3] He was a member of the board of directors from September 8, 1977, until his retirement in February 1990.
Donald E. Petersen stepped down as President, and became chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company on February 1, 1985. [4] Hailed a "Most Valuable Person" of 1988 by USA Today and "CEO of the Year" by Chief Executive magazine in 1989, Petersen transformed Ford with his inclusive, team-oriented management style.
Petersen was famously known for instructing the Ford design staff to design vehicles they would be proud to buy and park in their own driveways. An example of this is when Petersen asked Ford Vice President of Design Jack Telnack of the 1980 Thunderbird: "is this what you would want in your driveway?". The negative response by Telnack prompted the company to request the Thunderbird be restyled completely. This watershed event culminated in the redesign of the ninth-generation Thunderbird, which marked the introduction of highly aerodynamic body design to Ford vehicles in North America (reducing its drag coefficient from 0.50 to 0.35), followed by similarly designed model lines, including the 1984 Ford Mustang SVO, 1984 Ford Tempo, 1986 Ford Aerostar, and 1986 Ford Taurus. The redesign of the Thunderbird became a groundbreaking and wildly successful design which pulled Ford out of its financial doldrums of the early 1980s and provided the motivation and profit which carried Ford for the next decade.
Petersen's relationship with members of the founding Ford family became strained after he opposed the nomination of founder Henry Ford's great-grandsons, Edsel Bryant Ford II ("Edsel") and William Clay Ford Jr. ("Billy", "Bill Jr.", and later just "Bill") to certain committees of the board of Ford in the wake of the death of family patriarch and former Ford chairman & CEO Henry Ford II in 1987. Petersen's primary motivation was to permit more time to pass before a decision was made concerning the futures of the two young Fords. The widening of this schism later cut short Petersen's tenure at Ford, after a high-profile and public disagreement spilled over into the press regarding differences in strategic direction between Petersen and the members of the Ford family.
These differences were largely due to Petersen's purchase of the bankrupt Jaguar Cars company after a bidding war between Ford and General Motors. In this case, the press did not have the story straight, as Petersen had indicated his plan to retire, before the decision was made to acquire Jaguar.
In the years since, Ford contributed major managerial resources to and several times recapitalized Jaguar with no subsequent return of investment. Ford eventually divested itself of the Jaguar asset on June 2, 2008. Today, Jaguar is quite profitable. He was succeeded by Harold "Red" Poling.
Petersen has, at various times, held director-level board positions at The Boeing Company, starting in 1997, Dow Jones & Co., the Hewlett-Packard Company, Capital Research and Management Company (mutual funds), Axicon Technologies, Juran Center for Leadership in Quality (Member, Exec. Advisory Board), College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington (President, Advisory Board) and Long Shadows Vintners. A portrait of Petersen, painted by artist Michele Rushworth hangs in the Petersen Room in the Allen Library at the University of Washington.
Petersen is a member of the Business Council, the National Academy of Engineering, SAE, the Engineering Society of Detroit and Mensa. [5]
Petersen and his wife, Jo Anne, reside in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Seattle, Washington; and Montecito, California. They have two children, Leslie Price (who was born in 1956), and Donald L. Petersen (who was born in 1958). Leslie Price has a daughter named Joanne Price. In 2006, he recommended Alan Mulally of Boeing to Bill Ford, Jr. for the position of CEO/President at Ford Motor Company.
Henry Ford II, sometimes known as "Hank the Deuce" or simply "the Deuce", was an American businessman in the automotive industry. He was the oldest son of Edsel Ford I and oldest grandson of Henry Ford. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960, Chief executive officer (CEO) from 1947 to 1979, and chairman of the board of directors from 1960 to 1980. Under his leadership, Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation in 1956. From 1943 to 1950, he also served as president of the Ford Foundation.
Edsel Bryant Ford was an American business executive and philanthropist who was the only child of pioneering industrialist Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Jane Bryant Ford. He was the president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death in 1943.
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Jack Telnack is the former global Vice President of Design of the Ford Motor Company from 1980 to 1997. He is best known for his work with cars like the 1979 Ford Mustang, the 1983 Ford Thunderbird, and the 1986 Ford Taurus that ushered in a new era of aerodynamic design to America's mainstream marketplace.
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The Zeta Phi Society (ΖΦ) was a fraternal organization founded in 1870 at the University of Missouri. The Alpha chapter of the society became a chapter of Beta Theta Pi in 1890. The Missouri unit is the oldest fraternity in continuous existence at the university and the second fraternity founded west of the Mississippi River. Its second chapter, Sigma chapter joined Phi Gamma Delta in 1886. Zeta Phi Society's other two units disbanded.
Josephine Clay "Dody" Ford was an American philanthropist and the only granddaughter of Henry Ford.
Frank Anderson Shrontz is an American corporate executive and former government official. He is the former CEO and chairman of the Boeing Company.
The ninth generation of the Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury coupe that was manufactured and marketed by Ford for the 1983 to 1988 model years. In response to the sales downturn of the 1980–1982 Thunderbird, the Thunderbird underwent an extensive model revision for the 1983 model year. While remaining a personal luxury coupe, the redesign of the Thunderbird marked a transition of the model range, emphasizing performance and handling over outright luxury and comfort content. As a central theme of the design, the ninth-generation Thunderbird marks the introduction of highly aerodynamic body design to Ford vehicles in North America, followed by similarly designed model lines, including the 1984 Ford Mustang SVO, 1984 Ford Tempo, 1986 Ford Aerostar, and 1986 Ford Taurus.
Mary Teresa Barra is an American businesswoman who has been the chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of General Motors since January 15, 2014. She is the first female CEO of a 'Big Three' automaker. In December 2013, GM named her to succeed Daniel Akerson as CEO. Prior to being named CEO, Barra was executive vice president of global product development, purchasing, and supply chain.
Ralf Dieter Speth is a German automotive executive and a director of Indian company Tata Sons since 2016. From 2010 to 2020, he was the chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover. He has also had roles with BMW, Linde and Ford's Premier Automotive Group. Since 2022, Speth is the chairman of Indian Automaker TVS Motor Company.
Daniel A. Ninivaggi is an American automobile executive who currently serves as the executive chairman of Lordstown Motors, and formerly its CEO. He is also the chairman of Garrett Motion, and was formerly the CEO of Icahn Enterprises as well as co-chairman, co-CEO of Federal-Mogul.
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