Allan D. Gilmour Honors Paul McCracken

Nearly 50 years ago, teacher Paul McCracken and pupil Allan D. Gilmour, MBA ’59, met in a U-M business school classroom. It was a meeting neither will forget. “Allan was an extraordinary student. I found myself predicting ‘this man will wind up head of a company.’ He was not going to be an ordinary guy. His track record turned out to be precisely that at Ford,” says McCracken, the Edmund Ezra Day Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Business Administration. “I think I gave him an A+, and I didn’t give very many.” For Gilmour, the course taught by McCracken, who twice served on the Council of Economic advisers, first during the Eisenhower administration and again 10 years later as chairman for three years during Nixon’s presidency, also was memorable. “It was called something like Business Conditions,” Gilmour recalls, and combined the practical and theoretical aspects of the economy, including how the various pieces work. McCracken supplemented the material with his personal knowledge, talking about what was happening in the world and the country and the resulting issues for policymakers. “He used a combination of lecture and the Socratic method because the material didn’t lend itself to case teaching, but it was always more interesting when Professor McCracken answered the questions.” When the new Ross School building opens in 2008, an 85-seat tiered classroom will bear the names of Gilmour and McCracken, thanks to a $1.2 million gift from the Gilmour Fund. “When I was a student in Davidson Hall, classroom layouts were very different. Students were seated in rows and listened to the faculty member talk at the front of the room,” says Gilmour. “Today, the focus is much more on projects and group learning, so academic facilities have to be different too.” Gilmour credits Ross School principal gifts director Frank Wilhelme for suggesting the classroom as a tribute to McCracken. “I reflected on the major contributions Professor McCracken has made for nearly 60 years at the business school, consulted with the co-directors of the Gilmour Fund and here we are.” McCracken, who works in his Wyly Hall office most weekday mornings, admits feeling a slight twinge when Davidson Hall was torn down last summer. “It and I had the same career here. My first year in Ann Arbor, 1948, was the first year the building was in use.” Getting a building completed after the war was not easy, recalls McCracken. The demand for construction people was intense. They didn’t have to work hard, and it was on a cost basis. Offices weren’t ready until the next semester. “Overwhelmed” is how McCracken describes his reaction when he was told he and one of his brightest students would share a nameplate on a new classroom. “I didn’t expect that kind of thing. I never would have thought of it. I am grateful to Allan and grateful that he thought to contribute to his alma mater.” But McCracken was not entirely surprised by the gift. “When I thought about it, it was quite in line with Allan as a person. And he has done very well professionally and been a strong supporter of the school.” Gilmour, former vice chairman of Ford Motor Co., received the Ross School’s David D. Alger Alumni Achievement Award at spring commencement ceremonies in 2003. He is a member of President Mary Sue Coleman’s Advisory Committee and honorary co-chair of The Michigan Difference fundraising campaign. Gilmour has served as an adviser to U-M presidents starting with Harold Shapiro and served as a chair of the Ross School Visiting Committee. Gilmour, who grew up in Barnet, Vermont, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University before enrolling in the U-M Law School in 1956. Working the following summer in a law office convinced him to transfer to the business school. “Within two or three weeks, I knew the business school was the right place for me. Compared to schools in the east, Michigan was much more collegial.” He earned an MBA in 18 months and started working on a doctorate. “It was the best academic experience I ever had. Faculty members were knowledgeable and student oriented. The other students were smart and interesting ,” says Gilmour. “I was a reasonably serious student and considered an academic career, but after three semesters, I was sick of being a student, my father was sick of paying tuition, and I decided I didn’t really want to do academic research. I figured I would go out into the real world and, at age 40, I would retire and go into teaching.” Of the six job offers Gilmour received, Ford’s was the most enticing. “I tell people when you select a job, you select work colleagues. Also, the car business is fascinating. The auto industry was booming, and I liked the Ford people,” says Gilmour who started there in 1960 as a financial analyst and protégé of “Whiz Kids” Ed Lundy and Arjay Miller. During his first 34-year career at Ford, he would serve in a variety of roles, including as president of the Ford Automotive Group, executive vice president of International Automotive Operations and vice president of External and Personnel Affairs. Earlier, he also served as president of Ford Motor Credit Co. and then as president and controller and EVP-finance for the parent company. Gilmour left Ford briefly in 1967 to work for a private equity firm but within a few months returned to Ford, staying there until he retired for the first time in 1995. “I was tired at the time and increasingly interested in other things, including several corporate boards and charities. I wanted to putter around. Ford had just selected a new CEO, and I figured he didn’t need me.” Gilmour returned to the automaker in 2002 and retired a second time in 2005. Cars are more than a career for Gilmour, who each year scouts out the concept cars at the North American International AutoShow. His favorite at the 2007 show: the Lincoln MKR. “Being in the business for so many years, I care about everything from design to financing and enjoy having nice cars,” says Gilmour, who drives four Fords: a Mustang GT convertible, Explorer, Jaguar and Range Rover. Ford and the domestic auto industry have serious problems, Gilmour acknowledges, but they go far beyond management incompetence. “Some of the problems are a result of trading and currency policies back as far as the 1970s. Healthcare costs are another big problem,” he says. “Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are doing their darndest on these problems, but the real key, as always, is to build cars that people are wild about. Customers want their needs and desires met,” says Gilmour. These days, in addition to serving on three corporate boards — Whirlpool, DTE Energy and Universal Technical Institute (a school that trains automotive technicians) — Gilmour, who lives with partner Eric Jirgens in Birmingham, Michigan, frequently speaks on behalf of diversity . “Since retiring the first time, I’ve given more than 30 talks on the topic. I always start by asking if anyone in the audience has too many customers or too much talent in their organization, and then I ask who can afford to leave out whole groups of people. The only customers you don’t want are those who can’t pay.” Gilmour, who never talked about his sexual orientation during his first career at Ford, says, “I was closeted because I thought that an executive who was gay would be controversial, which wouldn’t have been fair to Ford or to me. I hid that part of my life. Once a reporter asked why I wasn’t married, and I responded that I had married Ford Motor Co.” However, when he came out of retirement to return to Ford, the world of business had changed so much in the area of diversity, particularly regarding sexual orientation, that being gay was no longer an issue. “Business has been a leader with anti-discrimination policies and benefits for same-sex partners because it makes good business sense,” Gilmour says. He is proud that in 2005, when members of the religious right threatened to boycott Ford because the company had advertised in gay publications and had made charitable contributions to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations, Ford didn’t change its principles. “We may have lost some sales, but we may have gained some too.”

Allan D. Gilmour