This one's a bit screwy. According to Reuters, Ford's compensation committee wants to pay Billy Ford– even though the former CEO and current Board Chairman pledged not to draw a penny in salary until FoMoCo had returned to profitability (currently scheduled for 2009). In a note filed with the SEC, Ford (the company) said it's decided to change the terms of of Bill Ford's 2005 compensation arrangement "in light of the company's progress in restructuring its troubled North American operations." The committee insisted that it was "not reasonable" to expect Bill Ford to continue to work for free "particularly after he has received no compensation for three years." Ford spokesman Oscar Suris said Bill Ford had turned his back on compensation worth roughly $25m to $33m. OK, now, The Detroit Free Press reports that Billy has reaffirmed his promise not to bank the bucks until Ford's in the black. TTAC is investigating.
17 Comments on “Billy Ford Breaks Promise, Goes Back on the Payroll. Or not....”
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Poor Billy. He was probably just one tin of truffles away from the food stamp line.
Great. The guy runs a company into the ground, stays on the board to do more damage, and now they’re gonna pay him for it, too?
freep.com is reporting that Bill Ford decided to continue to have compensation stay on hold.
“But according to a filing with government regulators late Wednesday, the board’s compensation committee decided that he deserved some compensation for his continued leadership, his recruitment of CEO Alan Mulally and his role in the progress under way.
But the committee’s report indicated that Bill Ford insisted on not receiving any payouts until the board considered automotive operations profitable, which is expected in 2009.”
Link: http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080228/BUSINESS01/802280452
The man causes untold damage with his famous, “Turtle on a Fence Post”, management style and now he thinks he deserves Lasorda like compensation?
Ford to be profitable in 2009? Good luck.
This story is getting screwier by the minute.
In the link you provided, “Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford can begin earning a salary and other compensation this year, though he won’t get paid until the company’s global automotive operations are profitable, excluding onetime items.”
One time items? What the Hell does that mean? Are they going to make a one-time payment to disguise it as compensation?
Anyway, thanks for the link. I’ll change the text accordingly.
OK, so he’s earning money but they’re not cutting him a check, deferring payment until later.
If Ford goes bankrupt, where does this leave Bill Ford in the payment line?
I’m a simple IT guy who has forgotten all that accounting, business law and related nonsense that I snoozed through some decades ago but my guess is Bill Ford’s positioning himself further up the line for a payment if worse comes to worst.
Not that Bill would stand in line. He has people for that.
Wasn’t the rest of the Ford family about ready to kill little Billy for the huge losses to their family fund, I have a feeling they would have something against him collecting before(if) they become profitable. What exactly does he do now that he would have to be paid millions for?
I have often wondered where Ford would be right now if it hadn’t had Ford family baffoons at the top for so long.
Where can I get one of those jobs? Seems auto exec and goverment posts are filled these days.
This stupid company that I work for actually expects me to do something each day.
Come on, did you actually expect better from Billy Ford?
Get real this is America 2008! The concept of defferment and sacafice no longer exist unless you are on the bottom of the heap!
The truth of the matter is FoMoCo is in big trouble yet the name sake could careless as long as he can get his money. I guess Billy feel ZERO sense of responsibilty to any of the tens of thousands of USA employees that are dependent on a REAL Ford turnaround.
WTF ever happened to the concept of leading by example!
One would think that Billy Ford would actually feel rather embarrassed about how badly he has stewarted his family’s empire. Gee, what would good ole Henry I. think?
Someone wrote a post yesterday were they stated that Toyota and Honda are in business for the sake of the customers that continuiously buy their products, while Ford and GM are in business for the sake of the shareholders that just demand more and more $$$ from a shrinking industry that their greed is doing much to destroy.
Today it is time to admit that Americans SUCK at doing big business, we are a country whose priorities are so far out of wack that we are incapable of fixing our own problems.
Notice, Toyota and Honda manage to satify both the customers and shareholders while GM and Ford are basically incapable of satifying anyone with their half-a$$ business model.
God Bless America!
That sounds to me like an admission that the company will never make a profit again so they’re going to grab as much of the remaining cash as possible.
More specifically, the no-pay pledge is “excluding onetime items.”
So he has vowed not to take a monthly salary only an annual one? Wow, that’s big of him.
I have often wondered where Ford would be right now if it hadn’t had Ford family baffoons at the top for so long.
Where GM or Chrysler are? Call me cynical, but I think they would just have different buffoons running the company.
” One time items? What the Hell does that mean? ”
I think its a single event like GM’s recent huge earnings hit from not being able to use some credits they had accumulated. Presumably, they want to tie his compensation to actual operations without the distortion of accounting adjustments. That seems fair.
John
I don’t know why people are so eager to beat up on this guy. While he hasn’t turned Ford around, bringing in Mulally indicates at least honesty and some humility. I think he has been in a very difficult position all his working life within Ford. Everyone around him walked softly and was no doubt careful with their words, so it would be very unlikely he’d get an accurate picture of the situation at any point. He might not be superman, but he’s a hell of a lot better than the crew at GM IMO.
His father deserves far more criticism it seems to me.
Bringing in Mulally was a good move. Billy never should have been running the company in the first place. Didn’t they see how well he ran the Detroit Lions?
I believe that John’s comment above is correct. They’re talking about one-time accounting items, not one-time payments. This is a common measure used by companies to more accurately portray their current operational status rather than GAAP numbers, which could be higher or lower depending on things like reserves, tax benefits, etc.
Where can I get one of those jobs? Seems auto exec and goverment posts are filled these days.
I don’t know, but when I do find out I am cutting in line ahead of you…
We all can’t live on free forever especially when our parents money runs out.