After markets closed on Tuesday, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced that former Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) CEO and President Alan Mulally joined the search engine company’s board of directors effective July 9th. Mulally will serve on the board’s audit committee.

Google gets a lot of publicity for its driverless car technology, but it very likely needed to corral someone who knows the auto industry well enough to get that technology both respected and adopted. Mulally should provide just that kind of presence for Google.

When Mulally arrived at Ford from his previous position as head of The Boeing Co.’s (NYSE: BA) commercial division he closed plants, slashed staff, and borrowed $23.5 billion to pay for the restructuring and reinvestment needed to get the company back on track.

Google operates a cash-printing business, so Mulally’s skills as a turnaround artist are likely to be little used, but his insight and advice on how to run a tight ship and his connection to the auto industry are both attributes that Google can use.

The company’s shares are trading up about 0.2% in the after-hours session Tuesday at $584.78 in a 52-week range of $502.80 to $604.83.

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