Edsel Ford

Edsel B. Ford II was elected to the Ford Motor Company board of directors in 1988. He serves on the finance committee and sustainability and innovation committee. As a consultant to Ford, he is active in company affairs and corporate dealer relations. Edsel B. Ford II began his career at Ford Motor Company in 1974. He was named president and chief operating officer of Ford Motor Credit Company in 1991 and elected a company vice president in 1993. He is owner and chairman of Pentastar Aviation, an aviation services provider headquartered at Oakland County International Airport in suburban Detroit, and is majority owner and chairman of Marketing Associates, a Detroit-based marketing services company. He serves on the board of International Speedway Corporation and is former chairman of the Detroit branch of Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Ford is very active in several charitable organizations and is former chairman of the National Advisory Board of the Salvation Army. He serves as president of Detroit Children’s Fund and is a board member emeritus of Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In 2013, he was presented with the Keith Crain/Automotive News Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in 1948, in Detroit, Mr. Ford received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Babson College in 1973 and completed the program for management development at Harvard Business School in 1981. He is the great-grandson of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, and the grandson of Edsel B. Ford, company president from 1919 to 1943. His late father, Henry Ford II, served as president of the company from 1945 to 1960 and chairman from 1960 to 1980. Mr. Ford is married to the former Cynthia Layne Neskow. They have four sons.