 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Donald Petersen" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Donald Petersen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Petersen portrait painting byMichele Rushworth | |
| Born | (1926-09-04)September 4, 1926 Pipestone, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | April 24, 2024(2024-04-24) (aged 97) |
| Alma mater | University of Washington (BS,ME) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Donald Eugene Petersen (September 4, 1926 – April 24, 2024) was an American businessman who was employed by theFord Motor Company for 40 years, most notably as its chief executive officer from 1985 to 1990.
Donald Eugene Petersen was born inPipestone, Minnesota, on September 4, 1926. He served in theU.S. Marine Corps inWorld War II and theKorean War. Petersen received hisB.S. andM.E. from theUniversity of Washington in 1946.[1] He was a member ofBeta Theta Pi fraternity.[2]
Petersen joined Ford in 1949 after receiving hisMBA from theStanford 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 on March 1, 1990.[4][citation needed]
Petersen stepped down as president, and became chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company on February 1, 1985.[5] Petersen transformed Ford with his inclusive, team-oriented management style.[citation needed]
Petersen was famously known for instructing the Ford design staff to design vehicles they would be proud to buy and park in their owndriveways. An example of this is when Petersen asked Ford Vice President of DesignJack Telnack of the 1980Ford 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 the1984 Ford Mustang SVO,1984 Ford Tempo,1986 Ford Aerostar, and1986 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 foundingFord family became strained after he opposed the nomination of founderHenry Ford's great-grandsons,Edsel Bryant Ford II ("Edsel") andWilliam 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 & CEOHenry 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 bankruptJaguar Cars company after a bidding war between Ford andGeneral 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 divested itself of the Jaguar asset on June 2, 2008. Today, Jaguar is quite profitable. Petersen was succeeded byHarold "Red" Poling.[6]
Petersen at various times held director-level board positions atThe Boeing Company, starting in 1997,Dow Jones & Co., theHewlett-Packard Company, Capital Research and Management Company (mutual funds), Axicon Technologies, theJuran Center for Leadership in Quality (member, executive advisory board), the College of Arts & Sciences at theUniversity of Washington (president, advisory board), and Long Shadows Vintners. A portrait of Petersen, painted by artistMichele Rushworth hangs in the Petersen Room in the Allen Library at the University of Washington.
In 2006, he recommendedAlan Mulally of Boeing to Bill Ford Jr. for the position of CEO and president at Ford Motor Company.
Petersen was a member of the Business Council, theNational Academy of Engineering,SAE, the Engineering Society of Detroit, andMensa.[7]
Petersen and his wife, Jo Anne, resided inBloomfield Hills, Michigan;Seattle, Washington; andMontecito, California. They had two children, Leslie Price (born 1956), and Donald L. Petersen (born 1958).
Petersen died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan on April 24, 2024, at the age of 97.[8][9]
Media related toDonald Petersen at Wikimedia Commons| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of theFord Motor Company March 13, 1980 – February 1, 1985 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief executive officer andchairman of theFord Motor Company February 1, 1985 – 1990 | Succeeded by |
