WILMINGTON, Del. — Ford chief executive Alan Mulally brushed aside talk of retirement Thursday, saying he hasn’t thought about stepping down now that the company is profitable.
“I haven’t thought about that at all,” Mulally, 65, said after Ford Motor Co.’s annual shareholders meeting in Wilmington, Del.
Mulally turns 66 in August. He was hired away from Boeing Co. in 2006 to rescue Ford, which was close to bankruptcy at the time. At Ford, he has cut brands, plants and staff and plowed the savings back into cars and trucks that are now hot sellers. Sales of the Fusion sedan, for example, are up 23 percent through April, while sales of the revamped Explorer SUV have more than doubled. Ford posted its eighth straight quarterly profit in the first quarter. The profit, of $2.6 billion, was Ford’s best first-quarter performance in 13 years.
In 2010, Mulally received a pay package worth $26.5 million, up 48 percent from the year before. The Associated Press
