SoftBank Hires Ford's Top Lobbyist as It Beefs Up Its Beltway Presence
2018年6月29日 - 7:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Christina Rogers in Detroit and Anupreeta Das in New York
SoftBank Group Corp. poached Ford Motor Co.'s chief global
lobbyist who will lead a new effort to build a Beltway presence,
people familiar with the matter said.
Ziad Ojakli, a Ford group vice president who has led the Detroit
auto maker's government relations strategy since 2004, resigned
Thursday and will leave the company mid-July, the people said. He
starts at SoftBank on Aug. 1.
Mr. Ojakli is the latest in a line of prominent executives to
leave the No. 2 American car maker since Chief Executive Jim
Hackett was hired last year.
The move comes as Ford and other auto makers are seeking to
court influence with the White House on a range of issues,
including President Donald Trump's efforts to ease fuel-economy
rules and the threat of new tariffs on American auto imports.
Mr. Ojakli's hiring is aimed at bolstering SoftBank's presence
in Washington, D.C., one of the people familiar with the matter
said.
The Japanese technology company wants to cultivate more
sustained relations with officials in Washington because the U.S.
is a major market for the company's investments, the person
added.
The company, through its $100 billion Vision Fund, has invested
in Uber Technologies Inc., WeWork Cos. and other startups. SoftBank
also recently invested $2.25 billion in GM Cruise Holdings, a
developer of driverless cars that is majority-owned by General
Motors Co.
As SoftBank expands the network of entrepreneurs it backs, its
executives also wanted to create a government-relations group that
can help those company founders navigate policy and regulation, the
person said.
In May, SoftBank said Marcelo Claure, its new chief operating
officer, would lead its global government affairs efforts. Mr.
Ojakli is the first of several planned hires aimed at helping to
transition SoftBank from a Japanese telecommunications firm into a
global investment company, the person said.
Mr. Ojakli, 51, has been a steady presence for Ford in
Washington, helping to steer the company's government relations
strategy through some pivotal moments, including the U.S. auto
industry's near collapse during the financial crisis and a deal to
implement new fuel-economy regulations under President Barack
Obama. He reports directly to Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr.
and oversees the company's efforts to engage with governments
world-wide. Mr. Ojakli also leads Ford's philanthropic arm.
Mr. Ojakli's name recently surfaced in the news after Michael
Cohen, Mr. Trump's former personal attorney, made an overture to
provide consulting services to Ford in January 2017, according to
people familiar with the matter. Mr. Ojakli quickly rebuffed Mr.
Cohen's offer, which special counsel Robert Mueller later learned
about in the course of his investigation, the people said.
Mr. Ojakli's exit comes as Mr. Hackett, who was hired in May
2017, works to stabilize his management team following the
departure of several top executives within the past year. Among
them was John Casesa, Ford's former strategy chief who left last
fall, and Ford's head of China, who departed in January after fewer
than six months on the job.
Earlier this year, Ford's chief for North America, Raj Nair, was
abruptly fired following allegations of misconduct. Mr. Nair, a
31-year veteran at Ford, was elevated to the post, running Ford's
most profitable region, by Mr. Hackett last year as part of a
broader management reshuffle.
Write to Christina Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com and
Anupreeta Das at anupreeta.das@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2018 06:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
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