New No. 2 at Ford

The Blue Oval has tapped Detroit native Jim Padilla to assume the Presidency at Ford Motor Corp. directly in line behind CEO Bill Ford Jr. Padilla replaces Nick Scheele who was in charge of Ford's latest round of restructuring after the Firestone debacle. Scheele and Vice Chairman/CFO Allan Gilmour will both retire on Feb. 1 2005. In an "I did not know that" moment this news piece informed me that Gilmour is one of the country's highest ranking openly gay corporate executive. Not only isn't there anything wrong with that but he should be given a hand for securing benefits for Ford's gay and lesbian employees.