Ex-Ford CEO May Be Mulling Presidential Bid
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Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The former president and CEO of Ford Motors may be eyeing an even more impressive title: President of the United States.
Asked by ABC News’ Dan Harris if he would ever make a bid for the White House, Alan Mulally pointedly did not rule it out.
“I really think it’s important that we all pull together … around a compelling vision for our country and a comprehensive strategy to do it and work together,” Mulally said with a laugh at a radio industry conference in Indianapolis on Thursday.
“With all of you as my witness, he did not say no,” Harris told the audience.
An audience member also posed the question to Mulally of whether he would run for office and again his reply was not a refusal to the idea.
“This is our country,” Mulally said. “And we all got to get really, really engaged with what we think is really important to get our wonderful country going again.”
The ABC News anchor also asked Mulally what he plans on doing now that he has retired and his five children have all grown up. The 68-year-old, who rebuilt Ford Motors and now serves on Google’s board of directors, did not have an answer.
“I can’t give you a definitive answer for that now,” he said. “I have my health and my energy and I love, I absolutely love serving.”
He has not publicly discussed his party affiliation, and he has donated to both the Republican and Democratic parties. According to campaignmoney.com, Mulally contributed at least $6,500 in 2010 to two Democratic congressional campaigns: Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow and John Dingell. And in 2012, Mulally contributed to campaigns for House candidates Fred Upton, a Republican, and Dingell.
In interviews, Mulally has praised government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler, even while using corporate language normally associated with conservative views. But he has called himself a capitalist and a market-driven person.
Mulally served as Ford Motor’s president and CEO from September 2006 to July 2014. He holds B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Kansas, and a master’s in management from MIT.
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