The great-great grandson of Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford, a 26-year-old ex-teacher who shares his legendary ancestor’s name, is joining the family business, reports Reuters.
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Henry Ford III, known to his family as “Sonny,” will join Ford’s labor relations department in the next few weeks, Ford board member Edsel Ford II has told reporters.
Henry Ford III becomes the second fifth-generation member of the Ford family to start a career at Ford. His cousin, Elena Ford, is a marketing executive.
“I think it’s terrific that the fifth generation is taking as much interest in Ford as they are,” Ford said.
Edsel Ford said his son, a 2002 Dartmouth College graduate with a degree in history, talked to his cousin, Ford Chief Executive William Clay Ford Jr., before deciding to take up a position in the firm’s labour relations division, Reuters reported.
Edsel Ford said he urged his son to consider that post, calling it “one of the most important areas for Ford’s future,” given pending contract talks in 2007 with the United Auto Workers union.
Henry Ford III has spent the last two years teaching middle school in Alexandria, Va., his father said, according to Reuters.
Edsel Ford said he recruited his son to Ford and hoped his younger brothers would also follow in his footsteps.
But he said his own father, Henry Ford II, who presided over Ford from the end of World War II to the 1980s, had warned him he would have to succeed on his own merits.
“My father said to me there are no crown princes at Ford. And I remember the day he said that to me. And I think that’s been true with the fifth generation as well. They’re going to have to make it on their own,” he reportedly said.
The Ford family controls about 40 percent of the voting shares of Ford Motor Co according to Reuters.
Bill Ford became the first Ford family member to hold the chief executive position in over two decades when he took his current post in 2001, the Reuters report added.
