He was the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes from 1998 to 2006, and later as president and chief executive officer of the Ford Motor Company from 2006 to 2014.

[1] Mulally is also widely credited with turning around Ford during the Great Recession, when American competitors were declared bankrupt and were bailed out by the federal government.

Mulally said that he found himself motivated at the age of 17 by president John F. Kennedy's challenge to send a man to the moon.

[14] He held this position until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes; chief executive officer duties were added in 2001.

[13] Following the forced resignations of CEOs Phil Condit in 2003 and Harry Stonecipher in 2005 of parent The Boeing Company, Mulally was considered one of the leading internal candidates for the position.

For Mulally's performance at Boeing, Aviation Week & Space Technology named him as person of the year for 2006.

[20] Mulally took over "The Way Forward" restructuring plan at Ford to turn around its massive losses and declining market share.

Mulally said that he intended to use the money to finance a major overhaul and provide "a cushion to protect for a recession or other unexpected event".

[24] At the time, the loan was interpreted as a sign of desperation, but is now widely credited with stabilizing Ford's financial position, compared to crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler, both of whom subsequently went bankrupt during the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009.

However, analysts said that Ford would have gotten much less or might not have found a buyer if they had tried to sell it later in 2008, as Jaguar Land Rover sales subsequently plummeted due to high oil prices in the summer, causing Tata to request a bailout from the British government.

[29][30] During hearings for government loans to Ford, he and other industry leaders were criticized for flying to Washington, D.C. in corporate jets.

During a subsequent meeting, he traveled from Detroit to Washington by a Ford-built hybrid electric vehicle, while selling all but one of the company's corporate jets.

In 2012, Mulally was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Kansas for his notable contributions to engineering and the transportation industry.

[43] Mulally was considered for Secretary of State in the first Trump administration but that job went to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.

[27] At a "town meeting" of 100 information technology staffers in February 2007, Mulally said, "We have been going out of business for 40 years", and repeated his message to other employee groups.

[16] McKinsey & Company asked Mulally how he maintained his mental and physical stamina, to which he responded: "Everybody always talks about how you need to manage your time.