Just this past September, Blue Oval Executive Chairman Bill Ford was inducted into the the Automotive Hall of Fame, which fittingly took place at Michigan Central Station, where the automaker just wrapped up a massive renovation of that historic site. Bill Ford himself played a big role in making that happen, helping to rejuvenate a part of town that was dire need of it. Now, Ford has earned another accolade, in part due to his efforts at Michigan Central – Crain’s Detroit Business 2024 Newsmaker of the Year.
Crain’s Detroit Business bestowed this honor upon Bill Ford at Michigan Central Station, in fact, in front of around 500 business leaders, journalists, and community figures. Ford engaged in a conversation with KC Crain, president and CEO of Crain Communications, discussing a variety of topics including that historic site, potential policy changes, tech innovations, and the enduring legacy of the Ford family, in general. On top of these efforts, Crain’s also recognized Bill Ford and his wife Lisa for spearheading an effort that raised nearly $20 million for Detroit’s children’s charities.
“When we announced this, there were a lot of skeptics,” Bill Ford said of the Michigan Central project. “But it’s way exceeded what I thought. I never wanted this to be a trip down memory lane. It was much more important to me that this really becomes a magnet for future talent, and that we create the kind of campus where the Motor City could become the Motor City again. You can’t have a healthy company if you don’t have a healthy community in which it resides.”
2024 actually marks the second time Bill Ford has achieved the status of Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year. He also received that same honor back in 2018, when Ford was recognized for engineering the purchase of the then-dilapidated Michigan Central Station site, promising to rehabilitate the iconic symbol and turn it into an urban campus to compete with Silicon Valley for top talent.
Comments
Congrats Bill and Lisa!
Respectfully, I think he needs to spend way more time fixing the quality issue his “team” has created.
Did they give him an award for killing the Edge, soon the Escape, and deciding we could only buy what his puppy-dog Farley wants? Too much time for the family and the management playing with trains and not enough time playing with cars.
Agreed
You should read again the article and try to understand what he got the award for? He is an outstanding Detroit citizen and should be respected for that.
Farley is not his puppy dog, he is running the Company until the Board decides to replace him.
We have a 2022 Ford Edge ST and I am not happy that the model has been discontinued, but that doesn’t diminish the respect I have for what the Ford family does and has done for the city of Detroit.
Belo…the issue isn’t what he’s done, it’s what he should be doing and for whom.
IMHO, being recognized for achieving the best quality / customer satisfaction ratings in the North American is way better than for restoring / converting an old train station for office space in a single city during a time when most people are working from home.
Unfortunately since Junior was appointed Chairman, the fortunes of Ford have been going downhill in terms of quality and market share. If Junior really wanted to do something for Detroit, they should have spent $5 billion building new plants in Detroit instead of some cornfield. Sorry, the comparatively small investment in the train station does not cut it for me.