This is the last in our series on the worst CEOs in America for 2025. We have a winner after picking several possibilities earlier: William Clay Ford Jr., executive chair of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F | F Price Prediction).
The chief executives in this series were selected based on their major strategy stumbles and on how their decisions affected shareholders, customers, and employees. Some of these CEOs are relatively new to the public corporations they run. Others, like “Bill” Ford, have had their jobs for years.
Bill Ford is a member of the Ford family who oversees the company’s interests and those of the broader shareholder base. The family controls the company’s Class B shares, which gives them voting control of America’s second-largest car company.
While the CEO on paper is Jim Farley, Bill Ford has run the company since 1999. In that time, he has worked his way through CEOs Jacques Nasser, Alan Mulally, Mark Fields, and James Hackett. Ford even had a period when he himself was CEO.
Ford’s colossal failure, symbolically, can be traced to one moment. In April 2022, he told The Detroit News when the company launched its electric vehicle (EV) flagship, the F-150 Lightning, “To put this in perspective … it is probably the most important launch of my career. … This has been a personal journey of mine since I joined the company 43 years ago.”
Monday, the company walked away from much of its EV business, stating that the decision, “Rationalizes U.S. EV-related assets and product roadmap: Ford expects to record about $19.5 billion in special items with the majority in the fourth quarter. The company expects about $5.5 billion in cash effects with the majority paid in 2026 and the remainder in 2027.” The Lightning’s current version, the symbol of the company’s future, was killed.
The Wall Street Journal’s headline was “Ford Takes $19.5 Billion Hit in Detroit’s Biggest EV Bust.” Its move into EVs is among the worst large company strategies of the 21st century.
Bill Ford, along with Farley in most of the company’s public statements, defended the decision year after year. In 2021, Ford said it would invest $30 billion into its EV efforts. Later, the company said it would build 600,000 EVs annually by 2023 and 2 million by 2026. In a last grab at EV success, in August, the carmaker launched a new manufacturing initiative that it said would change the car industry. Its first product was to be an EV truck in 2027.
Ford sold 1,006 F-150 Lightnings last month. That is 34 per day, nationwide.
Farley may have been the company’s spokesperson through much of its catastrophic EV journey. Yet Bill Ford’s fingerprints are all over its EV decisions.
Ford Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025–2030
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