A Ford Behind The Wheel

The man whose name is on all those Ford Explorers with the defective Firestone tires is finally coming out to defend his embattled company. Ford chairman William Clay Ford Jr. formally emerged last week, promising the public that his board of directors would thoroughly review how Ford's executives are handling the recall of 6.5 million tread-shredding tires, which have already claimed the lives of 89 Americans. He also expressed support for Ford CEO Jacques Nasser, who has become a regular presence on prime- time TV trying to reassure consumers that replacing bad Firestone tires on Explorers is Job One. Bill Ford, 43, who is a descendant of both the Fords and the Firestones, spoke with NEWSWEEK's Keith Naughton last week about his stepped-up role in damage control at the family business.

NAUGHTON: How does this crisis affect you as the great-grandson of Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone
FORD: Personally, this has been just a horrendous period. It was very much a part of my childhood to visit my grandparents in Akron [Firestone's former home base]. My great-grandfather founded Firestone, and my grandfather was CEO and ran the company most of his adult life. And to have my heritage so severely tarnished is extremely sad, and, frankly, it also makes me mad. But the family has been out of [running Firestone] for many years now. So it's not the same as Ford. This is what I'm giving my life to.

Why haven't you been more visible?
This started off very much as a product recall. At some point, almost overnight, it flipped into a big public-relations and government-relations issue. But by then, Jac [Nasser] was already out front and doing a terrific job, and I thought it would be confusing, and perhaps even undermining, for me to step in at that point. That's why I've been behind the scenes on this. I've been involved in every step of the way. I ended up not taking any vacation this summer because of this.

Did you actually cancel your vacation?
I went for one day and came back. I've been here every single day, not sleeping, and my stomach's been in knots.

So, are you going to appear in ads?
There will come a time [for that], but it's not yet. I'm not sure how reassuring it is for somebody who's waiting for tires to see another person out front talking about lofty goals and making high-minded statements.

What is the future of Ford's relationship with Firestone?
We'll do what the customer wants us to do. If the customer wants us to put those [Firestone] tires on, we will put them on. If the customer doesn't want those tires on, we won't. Obviously the relationship [with Firestone] is severely strained.