Since hearing of his death yesterday, I've been thinking about little but Geoff Polites. Geoff was a young turk product planner at Ford Australia when we first meet. Tough, opinioniated, a clear and logical thinker. Not be to argued with unless you knew the facts and could rationally support any argument.
Geoff loved sport and Australian Rules football was often a subject of dinner conversation at press launches, after we'd agreed that there was nothing to be gained in persuing a discussion on the relative merits of the Cortina in Australian conditions. He was an Ozzie rules umpire at the highest level, which impressed the hell out of me, and became closely attached to the Sydney football team and thought about running the AFL before accepting the position as head of Jag and Land Rover. Yet, it was he who explained to me the importance and drama of the FA Cup.
After Geoff left Ford Australia to run the country's largest Ford dealer in the late 1980s, it was Jac Nasser who coaxed him back to FoMoCo. He ran a tight company, and will always be remembered for the pushing through the Dearborn bosses a program for Ford Australia to design and build the Territory, an Australian SUV that in many ways, like dynamics, is better than the BMW X5.
I last saw him at the Detroit show. His face was grey, he'd lost most of his hair over a weekend, yet the smile and sense of humour were still there. AIong with so many of business colleagues, I admired his intense honesty and bravery. In a reflective moment, he did wonder why a bloke who had never smoked (or drunk) should be lumbered with bloody cancer. He thought it was totally unfair and he was right.
Peter Robinson