Swift retires as Ford Controller; Hansen, Acton, Ross, Macdonald to new posts
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William Swift

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Lloyd E. Hansen

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Elizabeth Acton 

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Dennis Ross

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Malcolm Macdonald

All Photos: Ford

The appointments are effective Oct. 1.    

Swift, 57, began his Ford career in 1965 as an accountant in the staff accounting department. He held a series of positions on the Finance staff until 1981, when he joined Car Product Development as assistant controller for product analysis. In 1984, Swift became project director of business strategy for Corporate Strategy and Analysis. Since then, he has held finance positions of increasing responsibility. He assumed his current position in 1999.  

Hansen, 52, will assume his new post after having served, since 1998, as controller, Marketing and Sales Operations. His previous post, held from 1994 to 1998, was controller, U.S. Marketing & Sales. Prior to that he worked as director of finance for Ford Asia-Pacific Automotive Operations. Hansen, who holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Brigham Young University and an MBA in finance from Northwestern, joined Ford in 1972 as a financial analyst in the controller's office in Product Development.  

Ms. Acton, 49, has been serving as executive vice president, Finance, and chief financial officer at Ford Motor Credit Company since 1998. A 1973 graduate of the University of Minnesota, where she majored in psychology, Ms. Acton earned an MBA in finance in 1976 at Indiana University and joined Ford in 1983 as a financial analyst in the Treasury department. Assignments involved international financing, portfolio and foreign exchange management, cash-flow forecasting, corporate finance and pension asset management. She was assistant treasurer for Ford before moving to Ford Credit.  

Ross, 49, has been the chief tax officer for Ford, a post he has held since joining the company in 1995. He will continue to be responsible for tax affairs as Ford's new general counsel. Ross was a tax partner at the law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell in New York from 1989 to 1995. He served as tax legislative counsel and deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy from 1986 to 1989. He holds a bachelor's degree and a law degree from the University of Michigan.  

Macdonald, 60, assumes the new Finance and Treasury Matters post after serving as Treasurer since 1995. He was assistant treasurer from 1981 to 1995 and served in many international posts. Macdonald joined Ford of Britain as a finance trainee in 1959. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.  

(September 15, 2000)