Ms English was elected to the Ford Motor Company board of directors in May 2021, becoming the first female Ford family member on the Detroit giant’s board. She is the daughter of Ford executive chairman Bill Ford and the great-great grandchild of company founder Henry Ford.

Since March 2020 Ms English has been a director in corporate strategy, responsible for enterprise, connectivity and digital network strategy.

Before joining the strategy team, Ms English was director of markets and operations for Ford’s Autonomous Vehicle LLC, where she was responsible for the successful deployment and operation of the Blue Oval’s autonomous vehicle business in Miami, Austin and Washington DC.

Previously, she was part of the Ford Smart Mobility City Solutions team, responsible for working with cities to understand how mobility services could be successfully developed and deployed.

Before starting her Ford career in 2017, Ms English managed profit-and-loss operations for customer-focused businesses in the merchandising divisions of fashion brands Tory Burch in New York and Gap in San Francisco.

She is a member of the board of directors for EV ute-maker Rivian, in which Ford is a shareholder, and is involved with The Children’s Center in Detroit and Impact100, an organisation that empowers women to become powerful agents of change within their own communities.

She also is an ‘emerging philanthropist’ with United Way, a charity that supports families and children in Southeast Michigan.

Ms English holds a bachelor’s degree in human biology with a concentration in the neurobiology and physiology of human behavior from Stanford University. She also has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

By Neil Dowling