Google adds an ex-Ford CEO to its board

Why would Google add a former CEO from one of America s big three auto-makers to its board of directors?

Can you say self-driving car?

Actually, there are plenty of reasons for a big company to want Alan Mulally, the former boss of Ford Motor Company, to join its board – even if he didn t have deep knowledge and contacts in the auto industry. Google announced Mulally s appointment on Tuesday.

Mulally earned a reputation for shrewd management during his eight years in Detroit, where he engineered a Ford turnaround by cutting costs and introducing new technology. Earlier this year, he was mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO at Microsoft.

He also was a top executive at Boeing and has degrees in aeronautics and aeronautical engineering – which will give him something to talk about with Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who have long been interested in aviation and space technology.

But you have to think that Mulally will be helpful to Google as it pursues its ambition of developing a car that drives itself. While the company has taken the driverless-car project further than many expected, many analysts believe it makes sense for Google to seek partners in the auto industry rather than try to build and market the vehicles by itself.

Google, in fact, just announced a partnership with Swiss biomedical company Novartis to develop and market its smart contact lens technology, also developed by the same X division that s responsible for self-driving cars.

Mulally will get $1 million in Google stock when he becomes the 11th member of Google s board.

(Photo of Google s cofounders and then-CEO Eric Schmidt in an early self-driving car, courtesy of Google)