Trotman was born on 22 July 1933 in
Middlesex. He was educated at
Boroughmuir School in
Edinburgh, and after studying at the
University of East London, received a
Master's degree in
business administration from
Michigan State University in
East Lansing, United States. Trotman was a member of the
Royal Air Force before leaving for the private sector. Trotman joined Ford in 1955 as a management trainee in the
United Kingdom. He was involved in the development of the
Ford Cortina compact car there and was noticed by
Henry Ford II. He came to the United States and earned a reputation for cost cutting. Trotman became CEO of the company in November 1993 and remained in the position until he stepped down in December 1998. Trotman retired in January 1999 after 43 years with Ford in a variety of positions throughout Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. He was the first foreign-born CEO of the company, followed by
Jacques Nasser who was also born abroad (in Lebanon, raised in
Australia). One of Trotman's main contributions at Ford was the Ford 2000 initiative, launched in 1995. This was an attempt to unify and consolidate Ford's manufacturing, marketing and product development forces around the world. The initiative produced $5 billion in cost savings, and produced $7 billion in profits for Ford in 1997. Some people considered it a failure, however, as many of the resulting products (like the
Ford Contour and
Mercury Mystique designs based on the European
Ford Mondeo platform), were not very competitive in the American market in the long term, and the major restructuring was disruptive to the company. The inability of senior management to successfully implement this program in the mid- to late-1990s turned out to be a huge opportunity lost, one that Ford was still desperately trying to leverage under the leadership of
Alan Mulally in 2007. Trotman was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996 and was created a
Life peer as
Baron Trotman of
Osmotherley in the County of
North Yorkshire, on 2 March 1999 in recognition of his contributions to industry. Trotman was a director of
ICI from 1997 until 2003 and became Chairman in January 2002. He ranked number 865 on the
Sunday Times Rich List 2004 with a net worth of £45m. He died on 25 April 2005 in
Yorkshire. ==References==