Auto News 5

Ford of America's president, Mark Fields, needs to visit his mom more often. What with the daily pressures of saving Ford and all, he could use a bit more of his very down-to-earth mother's brand of support. Elinor Fields lives not far from the old family home in Paramus, New Jersey. She is the mother behind a son who has navigated his way through an economics degree at Rutgers, an MBA at Harvard, and what has been a stunning career at Ford. Fields headed Mazda in Japan at age 38, the youngest person to ever run a Japanese car company. He went on to lead the Premier Automotive Group, now dismantled, and he sits at the right hand of Alan Mulally, trying to move his Way Forward program, well, forward.