The Attorney Division
tury. We have some tough decisions
to make to get the job done by 2008."
He declared: "We must change or
die,' referring to the battle cry he
used when he was president and
CEO of Mazda five years ago. Fields
closed plants, trimmed jobs, intro-
duced better products and made
Mazda profitable. Ford owns a third
of Mazda.
Ford has announced the future
layoffs of 30,000 employees and
closing of seven plants by 2012. The
company, beset by rising health care
and pension costs, lost $1.4 billion
in the first quarter of this year; its
industry market share has dropped
from 25 to 18 percent, and the
company's stock has sagged below
$7 a share.
Ford is counting on Fields to
accomplish another turnaround.
During his career, he also helped
restore Ford Argentina and Ford's
Premier Auto Group in Europe to
profitability.
Alluding to domestic automakers'
strong Asian competition, he said,
"We are no longer the Big Three;
now it's the up-for-grabs Big Six.
Ford is seeking to reclaim custom-
ers with innovative, high-quality
products."
In his worldwide travels, Fields'
family in New Jersey sent him
packages of matzah and Chanukah
candles to help him observe the
holidays and keep up Jewish tra-
ditions. He was bar mitzvah at a
Conservative synagogue, and got
an economics degree from Rutgers
University and an MBA from
Harvard.
Fields worked at IBM before join-
ing Ford in 1989 and lived briefly in
Farmington Hills and Birmingham
before going overseas. With resi-
dences now in Dearborn and Delray
Beach, Fla., he and his wife, Jane,
have two sons, Zachary, 11, and Max,
9.
In the question-and-answer
session, Eugene Greenstein of
Farmington Hills, a retired Ford
engineer, told him the root cause
of Ford's problems is "not investing
more in its people, and sustaining
costs."
After the meeting, Ron Harris of
West Bloomfield, a Jewish executive
with ASG Renaissance, a consulting
firm in Farmington Hills, predicted:
"Ford will succeed. The company
has shown it always excels in dif-
ficult times."
ities Aw e
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
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May 11 • 2006 35