Lifting the Lid-Ford family in focus as car crisis deepens

Reuters

Out of the Big Three remains the Big One.

Ford Motor Co (F.N) -- needing no U.S. bailout of the kind that has kept its Detroit rivals afloat -- remains the last independent American car company. That makes its founding family one of the last surviving dynasties of its kind.

It also adds an unexpected twist to a long-running debate over governance and control at Ford: Has the Ford family been good for investors, or just lucky?

The question is expected to go before shareholders again in May at Ford's annual meeting, in a nonbinding vote on whether to abolish the separate class of shares the family has used to control the automaker since it went public in 1956.

But Ford can point to its relative success in escaping the worst of the brutal downturn to bolster its long-held case that family control offers stability in a volatile industry.

"They have a very significant interest in the company," said Paul Lapides, director of the corporate governance center at Kennesaw State University. "Their wealth is very much in the company and it demands they pay a lot of attention."

Ford family members' Class B shares control 40 percent of the vote with just 3 percent of the stock.

 … Lapides, who holds some Ford stock, believes the automaker is on the right track in large part because of Mulally.

"Did they make a better decision than the other companies because of the family?" he asked. "I think people can argue that, but I think they just really just made a good decision and things worked out. I don't think this is family magic here."