BILL FORD JR.

This week on Flashpoint, we’re joined by executive chair at Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford Jr., who shares with us his vision for the development at the Michigan Central Station site.

The decision to purchase the shares bucks a recent trend by CEOs and corporate insiders who sold a record $69 billion in stock in 2021.

After a decade of mediocrity, shares of Ford remain lower than competitors but are up by about 50% this year and on pace for their best performance since 2009.

FILE - In this June 14, 2018, file photo, Bill Ford Jr., Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board, poses in the Michigan Central Station in Detroit. Details were released Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, and are part of Ford's $740 million project to create an innovation hub to help shape the way people and goods will move around in the future. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya File)DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. revealed plans Tuesday to transform a long-vacant book warehouse into a hub for automobile innovation in Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. Through it all, the train station remained standing — too costly to demolish, too large for other uses, and a contradiction to its once-ornate grandeur. About 250 workers in Ford’s autonomous vehicle business unit already work out of The Factory, another building near the train station.

Ford Motor blew away Wall Street expectations as well as the company's forecast earnings for the third quarter on stronger-than-expected demand during the coronavirus pandemic. Here's how Ford performed versus what Wall Street expected, based on average analysts' estimates compiled by Refinitiv. Ford more than doubled its adjusted pretax earnings from a year earlier to $3.6 billion in the third quarter. "We executed very well this quarter," Ford CFO John Lawler said Wednesday during a media briefing. That included stronger-than-expected demand and a rich mix for popular Ford trucks and SUVs as well as commercial vehicles.

Incoming Ford CEO Jim Farley (left) and Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. pose with a 2021 F-150 during an event Sept. 17, 2020 at the company's Michigan plant that produces the pickup. Ford Motor's new CEO Jim Farley is shaking up the company's top ranks and restructuring operations as the automaker struggles to bolster shareholder confidence and stay relevant in an increasingly competitive market. Farley, who succeeds Jim Hackett, is streamlining operations and increasing the company's focus on key growth areas like autonomous and electric technologies as well as commercial vehicles. For years, the company has failed to gain Wall Street's confidence in its business operations, including an $11 billion restructuring plan orchestrated by Hackett. Ford shares slid 40% under Hackett, who succeeded longtime Ford executive Mark Fields as CEO in May 2017.

Incoming Ford CEO Jim Farley (left) and Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. pose with a 2021 F-150 during an event Sept. 17, 2020 at the company's Michigan plant that produces the pickup. DEARBORN, Mich. — Amid a heated presidential election and polarizing protests over racial injustice, Ford Motor is betting there's still enough American pride to draw customers in with a new "buy American" ad campaign that touts the company's investments in the U.S. "In the past six months, it shows why it is so important to have a strong manufacturing base in America," he said. "More than any other automaker, Ford is built for America," he said, referring to the company's new tagline. It ranks behind Apple's iPhone but ahead of Android OS devices, Disney and all major sporting leagues, according to the study.

Ford Motor CEO Jim Hackett warned employees Thursday that "tougher actions" such as job cuts could be needed depending on the severity and length of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on operations. In addition to the executive salaries, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr., great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, will defer 100% of his cash salary. He earned a $1.7 million base salary in 2018, according to the company's latest proxy filing. Hackett, whose base salary was $1.8 million in 2018, will defer 50% of his salary, according to the company. Ford Chief Operating Officer Jim Farley and Ford Chief Financial Officer Tim Stone also will defer 50% of their salaries, the company said.

Devin sat down with Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. at this weeks World Mobility Leadership Forum, to talk about the future of transportation and how Ford factored in to the first presidential debate.