Google appoints former Ford CEO Mulally to board

Google announced Tuesday that it has appointed Alan Mulally, who retired from his eight-year role as president and chief executive officer of Ford on July 1, to its board of directors. The appointment was made effective on July 9.

Mulally, who was also executive vice president of aerospace company Boeing and CEO of its Boeing Commercial Airplanes division from 2001 to 2006, will be joining Google's Audit Committee. Made up of three independent members of its board of directors, the audit committee is responsible for overseeing Google's accounting and financial reporting processes.

Mulally is largely credited with steering Ford through tumultuous times during the economic recession in the late 2000s, making it the only auto company to resist the need for a government bailout. And Mulally is certainly no stranger to technology. He was an early believer in the smart car and recognized that his company had a big role to play in consumer technology. Many had speculated that Mulally was prepped to take over for Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft.

The former Ford exec brings his experience in the auto and aviation industries to a more tech-oriented team of high-profile business leaders on the board. He will be joining the triumvirate of Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt alongside venture capitalists and former Amazon executives L. John Doerr and K. Ram Shriram; former Princeton University president Shirley Tilghman and current Stanford University president John Hennessy; former Intel CEO Paul Otellini, VMWare co-founder Diane Greene; and Ann Mather, a former executive vice president of Pixar.

"I am honored to serve on the board of a global iconic company that is dedicated to enhancing our lives," Mulally said in a statement. "I look forward to working together with the Google board and management team to continue to deliver their compelling vision."