People: Alexander Trotman
When Ford Motor Co. named Alexander Trotman, MBA '72, as Chairman and CEO in October, The New York Times noted that it 'reinforces a trend among the Big Three of elevating leaders who intimately understand cars and trucks, not just finance or administration.'
The promotion also reinforces, however, a trend of naming MSU graduates to top echelon posts. Chrysler had Vice President Jack Withrow, '54, MBA '71 (and Bob McCurry, '50, who left for Toyota), while General Motors recently had both Chairman and CEO Bob Stempel, MBA '70, and Vice Chairman Bob Schultz, '53, MBA '69 (see cover story, Fall 1990). The Ford move was widely hailed among industry experts as Trotman, a native of England who served in the Royal Air Force, brings a lengthy record of success both in the U.S. and overseas.
'I can't say I specifically came in the door wanting to be chairman,' he admits, 'but I had the arrogance of youth and thought I could climb the ladder.'
MSU retired management professor Eugene Jennings, an expert on auto companies management, says the move signals 'the end of the Hank the Deuce years'--that is, the Henry Ford II era. Alexander, now 60, began his career as a Ford parts expeditor in Dagenham, England--a job he refers to as 'boot camp.' He moved to product planning, and after helping merge the German and English operations he moved to Dearborn, MI, in 1969. At one point he was executive assistant to then president Lee Iacocca.
After heading Ford's Asia- Pacific operations in Australia, he returned to Dearborn headquarters in 1989 as executive vice president of North American Automotive Operations. Despite a slumping economy, he convinced the company to spend $700 million to revamp the Mustang. Perhaps his most tenacious feat, however, was in persuading Ross Perot--then highly critical of the auto industry--to buy a Ford vehicle. It is rumored that the Texas billionaire and gadfly politico ultimately succumbed.
