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Ray Day

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Ray Day is vice president of communications for the Ford Motor Company.  He leads all of the company’s global external and internal communications and public relations activities.  His role includes building the company’s reputation globally and leading communications that reach Ford’s external and internal audiences, including customers, employees, dealers, suppliers, news media, communities, governments and policy makers.

Day, 44, was appointed to his position in November 2007.  He reports to Alan Mulally, Ford president and CEO.

“Ford is one of the world’s most iconic and admired companies, and we have a very strong story to tell—particularly as we make progress on our plan for profitable growth around the world,” says Day. “As we tell the Ford story, we are building on the fact that people see Ford as different, and we are setting ourselves apart by the great products, stronger business and better world we are creating.”

Day joined Ford in 1989 and spent most of his career leading Ford’s global communications and public relations activities related to the company’s products, design, manufacturing, sales, marketing, brand development and corporate issues.  Before being named a vice president, he served as executive director of global corporate communications and executive director of global automotive communications.

Day was based for four years in Europe, serving as head of Ford’s European Product Public Affairs and living in both Germany and the United Kingdom.  He led development of the communications strategy and introduction of the Ford Focus in Europe in 1998 and in North America in 1999.  The Focus became one of the few cars ever to be named “Car of the Year” by automotive writers in both Europe and North America.

Early in his Ford career, Day led the company’s print and television employee communications network, helping it become an internal communications benchmark throughout the industry.  He was a newspaper reporter and editor in the Detroit area before joining Ford.

Day is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications.  He currently serves on the boards of the Automotive Hall of Fame and Detroit Public Television.  He also is a member of the organizing committee of The Seminar for public relations and a member of the Arthur W. Page Society.

Day and his wife, Debbie, and their two daughters live in Plymouth, MI.