Alexandra is flanked by Edsel (left) and Henry.
DETROIT: Ford Motor Co on Friday nominated two younger Ford family members to its board of directors, continuing a presence among the directors for the family that founded the US automaker.
Ford said it nominated Alexandra Ford English, the 33-year-old daughter of executive chairman Bill Ford, and Henry Ford III, the 40-year-old son of Edsel Ford, Bill’s cousin who is retiring from the board in May.
Both the younger Fords are great-great grandchildren of Henry Ford, who founded the Dearborn, Michigan-based company in 1903.
Both will stand for election to the board at the annual shareholders’ meeting on May 13.
Edsel Ford, 72, who joined the board with Bill Ford in January 1988, and John Lechleiter, 67, who joined the board in 2013, will not stand for re-election to the board. Edsel Ford had reached retirement age.
Bill Ford said the board expects to take additional steps to diversify its makeup going forward.
In other Ford news, Ford said it will begin notifying owners April 1 in its new recall of 2.9 million vehicles in North America with potentially defective driver-side Takata air bags after US regulators demanded the fix in January.
It said in January it would comply with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration request and that the recall would cost US$610 million.
The defect, which leads in rare instances to air bag inflators rupturing and sending potentially deadly metal fragments flying, prompted the largest automotive recall in US history of more than 67 million inflators.
