• Detroit Free Press, Monday, January 10, 2011 10:30 AM

This month Ford will likely turn an $8.2 billion profit, its best performance since 1999. It's almost incredible to think that this is the same automaker that a few years ago was essentially a holding company struggling to juggle odds-and-ends enterprises, a fumbler of auto launches, and a manufacturer of trucks and SUVs that also happened to make rental and livery cars. From a company losing share faster than chocolate mousse cake at a sweets anonymous meeting, Ford has been gobbling share from competitors.

Ford is now quickly becoming a leading force in U.S. cars and crossovers. For the second year in a row the Dearborn, Mich. company has increased its hold on American car buyers: 16.7% auto shoppers bought a Ford last year. And in various surveys, consumers now put Ford in the top-three in terms of their perception of brand value, quality and other metrics that matter.

"We have now turned a corner, and we are growing the business," said Alan Mulally, the former Boeing exec who took the reigns of Ford in 2006. He has earned big kudos for the company's remarkable turnaround, but Derrick Kuzak, Ford's global VP of product development deserves props as well. In fact Mulally himself says Kuzak is the force behind the company's turnaround.

He tells the Free Press that Kuzak was the first Ford executive he tapped for global responsibilities in 2006 and praised Kuzak's commitment to making sure every new Ford car and truck is a leader in fuel efficiency and design.

"Clearly, Derrick is the center of the universe," Mulally said

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