DETROIT: Jason Vines, who took the top communications spot at Ford
in February 2000, told PRWeek that he had known he would be a casualty
of the management shakeup that saw the departure of CEO Jac Nasser,
Vines' former boss.
Nasser brought Vines to Ford from Nissan. He became closely identified
as Nasser's spokesman through the two-year Ford-Firestone tire
controversy.
"I knew if the rumors were going to come true about Jac, I'd be gone in
a millisecond," Vines said. Nasser himself had warned Vines he'd be
losing his job shortly after Nasser knew he'd be leaving.
Vines helped Nasser through extraordinarily trying times. "The waves
started crashing in so soon, and just kept coming," Vines said.
An industry observer testified, "It was an incredibly untenable
situation, and you could see it in the bags under Vines' eyes whenever
he went out in public."
Some are speculating that Vines could quickly turn up at another auto
job such as heading PR for DaimlerChrysler. Vines would only say that
he's "gotten lots of calls."
