Philip Caldwell

Philip Caldwell (January 27, 1920 – July 10, 2013) was the second person to run the Ford Motor Company (after John S. Gray) who was not a member of the Ford family. He orchestrated one of the most dramatically successful turnarounds in business history.

Caldwell was born in Bourneville, Ohio, the son of Robert Clyde Caldwell (1882 – 1935), a farmer, and Wilhelmina Hemphill (1881 – 1966). He grew up in South Charleston, Ohio. Caldwell is of English ancestry. Caldwell is a 1940 graduate of Muskingum College where he majored in economics and was a member of the school's debate team. In 1942 he earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School.

Starting at Ford in 1953, he successively headed truck operations, the Philco division, and international operations; in the last of these positions he introduced the Ford Fiesta into Europe.

Following the firing of Lee Iacocca in 1978, Caldwell became president of Ford Motor Company. On October 1, 1979, Henry Ford II retired as CEO and as Chairman of the Board of Directors in 1980; Caldwell succeeded him in each position.

As Chairman of the Board and CEO Caldwell approved and oversaw the development and launch of the Ford Taurus (and its corporate sister the Mercury Sable) which were introduced to the media days before his retirement, thus allowing him to take public credit for the Taurus program, which became one of the biggest successes in automobile business history.

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