jews in the d

At the
Finish Line

As Neil Schloss retires
from a 36-year career
at Ford, he looks to
the future.

JACKIE HEADAPOHL MANAGING EDITOR

T

he new year will find Neil
Schloss on a beach in Florida
not in the Glass House in
Dearborn. Schloss, vice president and
chief financial officer of Ford Smart
Mobility, a subsidiary of the Ford
Motor Co. dedicated to providing
specialized mobility products and ser-
vices, officially retires Dec. 31 after a
36-year career with the automaker.
In addition to being the found-
ing CFO for Ford’s mobility efforts,
Schloss served as the company’s
treasurer during the Great Recession
(December 2007-June 2009) and
played a lead role in allowing Ford to

16

December 27 • 2018

jn

weather the financial crisis without
a government bailout like crosstown
rivals GM and Chrysler Fiat.
In 2006, prior to the recession,
he helped Ford secure $23 billion
in financing that gave the company
crucial liquidity when the downturn
hit. In 2009, Schloss then led a cre-
ative debt buy-back plan that cleared
$10.5 billion off Ford’s books for $3.5
billion in cash and equity.
“I believe Ford saw earlier [than
other automakers] what might hap-
pen and recognized the need for more
liquidity,” Schloss said. He calls those
years between 2006-09 the highlight
of his career — and the most chal-
lenging.
“The liquidity allowed Ford to keep
funding new product,” he said. “The
key to our success coming out of the
Great Recession was having a portfo-
lio of new products to sell.”

ON BEING A JEW AT FORD
Schloss and his wife, Terry, have
two daughters. One is a lawyer in

Washington, D.C.; the other is a stu-
dent at the University of Binghamton
in New York. The Schlosses are
longtime members of Ohel Moed of
Shomrey Emunah, a small Orthodox
synagogue in West Bloomfield.
Schloss, who grew up as a
Conservative Jew in San Diego,
Calif., became more observant 24
years ago. “I became religious and
my career took off. Is there a con-
nection? I don’t know,” he said with
a smile in a video for Jew in the City,
an organization that works to break
down stereotypes about Orthodox
Judaism, that named him an “All-
Star” in 2017.
“I think spirituality, being obser-
vant, being accepting of constraints
gives you a balance. It gives you a
sense of grounding,” he said. “I need
that balance from the standpoint of
putting it all together and making
sense of things.”
Schloss said Ford is a great place
to work for an observant Jew. “I went
from being Conservative to being

observant and went from working
24/7 to 24/6 with no problem. My
colleagues would look at their
watches at 3:30 on a Friday in the
winter and say, ‘Don’t you need to
leave?’
“If I were traveling and my col-
leagues returned home on Saturday,
I would stick around until Sunday
morning and it was never an issue,”
he added.
“Ford prides itself on diversity and
acceptance of everyone’s faith and
religious beliefs.
“In my 36 years, I’ve never felt any
anti-Semitism here.”

A CHANGING INDUSTRY
The automotive industry is changing
in many different ways, Schloss says.
“Technology plays a pretty signif-
icant role in not only changing the
way people drive, but also what they
will drive,” he said. “Battery electric
vehicles will become a bigger piece of
the pie. Safety features will become
increasingly important as will connect-