President-elect Donald Trump is considering former Ford CEO Alan Mulally for secretary of state, according to Trump’s senior advisor Kellyanne Conway.
Conway told “Fox & Friends” that the longtime Boeing executive and former Ford president and CEO is “under consideration to be the next secretary of state.” Mulally is on Google’s board of directors, and this year became a senior fellow at Seattle University’s Albers School of Business.
Mulally, who met with the president-elect Thursday at Trump Tower, was hired by Boeing out of college as an engineer in 1969, where he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming president and CEO of Boeing in 2001. His position at Boeing, a large American exporter of commercial aircraft, was one that involved regular interactions with foreign diplomats and investors.
Mulally served as CEO of Ford Motors from 2006 until 2014, leading the Detroit automaker through the great recession. While General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt and requested federal government bailouts, Ford avoided bankruptcy by its “well timed borrowing.”
Mulally led an effort to borrow more that 20 billion in 2006 by mortgaging its assets, which allowed the automaker to survive the recession without filing for bankruptcy. Ford did receive a $5.9 billion loan from the government.
In 2014, Mulally resigned at Ford and joined Google’s board of directors. The 71-year-old businessman is largely credited with helping Ford stay independent during the tumultuous economic crisis, and is widely viewed as a successful executive.
“The secretary of state field has obviously broadened and widened,” Conway said Friday morning, listing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Gen. David Petraeus, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and Republican California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher as possible nominees.
On what Trump may be looking for in a secretary of state, Conway said that “You have to be able to adhere to what will be the Trump doctrine, worldwide, and be willing to execute on his vision for that role as secretary of state over at Foggy Bottom.”
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