JANUARY 6 • 2022 | 29

PHOTO COURTESY OF FORD

n the biography of Steve Jobs on Gil Gur Arie’s 
bookshelf, author Walter Isaacson shares a story 
about the day Jobs unveiled the Macintosh computer. 
A reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type 
of market research he had done. Jobs responded by 
scoffing, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any mar-
ket research before he invented the telephone?”
Ford’s CEO Jim Farley, with decades of experience 
in marketing, is a strong believer in innovation but 
not the kind where you just trust your gut. His vision 
is for Ford to be a data-first company and to keep data in 
mind for everything the company does, both miniscule and 
major. Since becoming president and CEO last October, he’s 
been recruiting near and far to help the company determine 
how data can guide the direction of the company’s future. 
These new recruits have come from noted names like Apple, 
the technology company founded by Jobs.
Gil Gur Arie, who became an executive at Ford on May 
1, 2020, is another such recruit. He now serves as the chief 
data and analytics officer for Ford. His first day at the office, 
during the start of the pandemic, ended up also being his last 
day at the office as he transitioned quickly to remote work.
The Israeli native now has a home base in West 
Bloomfield, along with his wife, Hagit, and four children 
(ages 8, 10, 14 and 17). “As I reflect on my first year here 
with my family (relocating to Michigan), it was tough at 
the beginning. I would say the pandemic definitely didn’t 
help connecting, but I found a nice community here in 
West Bloomfield. The Jewish community as well. We got a 
bunch of challahs the very first Friday and my wife, who 
is a great cook and baker, made some for the neighbors as 
well,” Gur Arie told the Jewish News.
“I would say, despite the pandemic, we have felt a warm 
welcome and a sense of belonging,” he added. His children, 
who began school on Zoom, now are back to in-person 
learning in the Bloomfield Hills School District.
Gur Arie and his wife decided to tap into downtown areas 
on the weekends. So far, they’ve hit several locations, includ-
ing Plymouth, Birmingham, Novi and Northville. 

JEWISH LEGACY 
AT FORD
Wesley Sherwood, on the mobility communications team at 
Ford, mentioned that Ford had the distinction of having a 
prior CEO from the Jewish community, Mark Fields, as well 
as a previous treasurer within the community, Neil Schloss. 
With Gil’s appointment, he is now the most prominent Israeli 
and Jewish executive at the firm and also one of the most 
prominent Israel executives within the automotive world.
Ford, with the largest revenue and employee base of any 
company in Michigan, has a history of global recruitment in 
recent decades. Norman Lewis, as one such example, previ-

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