Google has appointed former Ford Motors Alan Mulally to its board of directors, a move that could be an important step as the company tries to develop a self-driving car and get its software into more vehicles.
Mulally, 68, was once a contender for the top job at Microsoft. He will now join capitalist John Doerr, former Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini and VMWare co-founder Diane Greene on the board.
Google believes that his auto industry experience will be important as Google engages Detroit, hoping that its Android software will become the standard platform for messaging and media in vehicles.
"Alan brings a wealth of proven business and technology leadership experience," said Google CEO Larry Page in a blogpost this week.
On July 1, Mulally handed Ford's helm to COO Mark Fields, six months earlier than expected.
Mulally is credited with transforming the No. 2 U.S. automaker from a money-loser to a company that expects to see a pretax profit of up to $8 billion this year, according to Reuters.
The company is also pursuing its vision of self-driving cars, mainly on its own.
The board is chaired by Eric Schmidt.
Mulally will also serve on Google's audit committee, according to Reuters.
"As Google's car project progresses, the company needs a mixture of their existing culture of moving quickly and disrupting things and a more incremental approach to address safety and other challenges faced in the auto industry," said Bob Denaro, a consultant in intelligent transportation systems and former executive at Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc, according to the Wall-Street Journal. "Alan will help with that."
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