Mulally among four to be inducted into Automotive Hall of Fame

(June 13, 2016) DETROIT — Four people will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame at ceremonies in July. Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally and consumer activist Ralph Nader will join Bertha Benz, the wife and business partner of Carl Benz, who invented the automobile, and engineer Roy Lunn as the latest inductees.

The four inductees will be honored at the hall's 2016 induction and awards ceremony on July 21 at Cobo Center in Detroit.

“We are pleased to induct four individuals whose entrepreneurial spirit helped create today’s global automotive industry,” William R. Chapin, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame, said in statement. “Each made their unique vision a reality through tenacity, c
reativity and forward thinking, traits that still drive the auto industry evolution today.”

Mulally, 70, oversaw the team that created the first all-digital airplane, the Boeing 777. He became CEO of Ford in 2006 and steered the company through the severe downturn of 2008-09 before retiring in July 2014.

"Mulally guided the Ford team in working together on a compelling vision, comprehensive strategy and relentless implementation of the One Ford plan to successfully guide the company through the U.S. financial crisis and restore Ford’s status as one of the world
’s leading automakers," the hall said in a statement.

Nader upended the auto industry more than 50 years ago with his landmark book, “Unsafe At Any Speed,” that exposed safety lapses in General Motors vehicles. The book sparked government hearings and helped introduce a wave of U.S. regulations and spurred Congress to create the federal agency that became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Lunn, 91, a former Royal Air Force pilot with degrees in mechanical and aeronautical engineering, joined Ford in 1953 to start a new research center in England. In 1962, he and a team of engineers developed a two-seat Ford Mustang I prototype in just 100 days.

Source: Automotive News