Bill Ford Defends CEO Against Shareholder Gripes on Stock Price

“It’s not clear yet to the market where this whole mobility world is going and who the winners are going to be, who the losers are going to be,” Bill Ford said. “They see tech companies coming into this space and they wonder what our role is going to be. Our goal then, over this next year or so, is to clarify that as best we can.” At the company’s meeting, shareholders rejected a proposal to strip the founding family of its 40 percent voting control and move to one vote per share. The vote was 63.1 percent against and 36.9 percent in favor. That’s the most support such a proposal has ever received, up from 36.3 percent last year. The family controls the automaker through Class B shares that only its members can own. Henry Ford’s great-grandsons, Bill Ford and his cousin Edsel Ford II, are members of the board.