Jacques Nasser

Jacques Albert Nasser (Arabic: جاك نصر; born 12 December 1947) is a Lebanese Australian American business executive and philanthropist.

Jacques "Jac" A. Nasser was born in the city of Amioun, Lebanon on 27 December 1947.

He is the son of a former bus driver and independent businessman, Abdo Nasser, who served with the Australian armed forces in Lebanon during World War II.

At four years of age Nasser moved with his family to Melbourne, Australia.

He attended Northcote High School.

He started a number of businesses as a teenager, including a bicycle-making operation and several discotheques with his brother Jamie, which they promoted in Melbourne.

He also has a sister, Betty.

Nasser's first professional experience was at Ford Australia as a student intern.

He graduated with a business degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne in 1968, where he would later be awarded with an honorary doctorate of technology.

He speaks four languages: English, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese.

Upon graduating, in 1968 the 20-year-old Nasser joined Ford as a financial analyst, working at the head office in Australia.

In 1973 he joined Ford's global financial staff and transferred to Ford's North American Truck Operations in the United States.

Afterwards, he returned to Australia to work as a manager of product programming and financial analysis, before joining Ford's International Automotive Operations.

While with the international division, he helped oversee Asia-Pacific and Latin American operations.

While working in Argentina, Nasser was notably kidnapped by political extremists, being returned to the Ford plant two days later.

Nasser helped in the negotiations of Ford's South African joint venture program in 1982.

The following year, he developed a business and operating plan for Ford's Hermosillo Assembly Plant in Mexico.

In 1987 Nasser became the first director and vice president of Autolatina, a joint venture between Ford and Volkswagen in Brazil and Argentina.

While remaining in charge of Autolatina, in 1989 he also took charge of Ford Australia, where he had started his career.

He remained president and CEO of Ford Australia until 1993, where he picked up the corporate nicknames "Jac the Knife" for cost-cutting efficiencies.

He was also dubbed "Black Jack" for his ability to keep numbers north of red.

On 1 January 1993, Nasser was elected chairman of the board of Ford Europe, a role he maintained until 1996.

He was promoted to vice president of Ford Motor Company in 1993 as well, becoming Ford's group vice president of product development in 1994.

While in his position of Ford's VP, Fortune writes that he developed a reputation for working 18-hour days and regularly interacting with Ford employees via a newsletter.

Wrote Fortune about his time as VP, "if Ford is a religion, then Nasser is the head preacher."

On 1 November 1996, he began heading Ford Automotive Operations.

Nasser was the featured speaker at the 1998 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS).

Bloomberg Businessweek described Nasser in late 1998 as a "scrappy, hard-nosed cost-cutter who is widely credited with Ford's turnaround," and Fortune in June 1998 described Nasser as "heir apparent" to Ford CEO Alex Trotman, who was soon to retire.

The projected high-profile appointment met with a great deal of attention in the press, and largely positive reactions.

Known for a management career at Ford Motor Company spanning several decades and continents, from 1999 to 2001 he served as Ford's CEO and president.

He subsequently was a partner at One Equity Partners (JPMorgan), as well as on the boards of British Sky Broadcasting and Brambles.

On 1 January 1999, Nasser became president and CEO, as well as a member of the board of directors, of Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan.

During Nasser's time, Ford was the world's most profitable automaker, with profits of $7.2 billion on sales of $163 billion, so he was given free rein to experiment by the simultaneously appointed chairman Bill Ford.

Nasser announced that he would transform Ford, according to The Economist, into a "consumer-products and services company".

Also previously on the international advisory council of Allianz and Chairman of the Australian mining company BHP Billiton from 2010 to 2017, Smart Company named Nasser No. 6 on a 2012 list of the "most powerful people in Australian boardrooms."

Nasser is currently on the board of Koç Holding, and served on the board of Fox Corporation, as both lead independent director and chairman of the compensation committee for the latter.

He is also currently on the advisory board of Altimetrik and on the chairman's panel of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Nasser, who funds a number of scholarship programs, is a member of both the National Order of the Cedar in Lebanon and the Order of Australia.

Nasser was also awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which pays homage to contributions made to America by immigrants.

In 2017 he was named a Companion of the Order of Australia.