Trotman was born on 22 July 1933 in Middlesex, England. He was educated at Boroughmuir School in Edinburgh, Scotland, and after studying at the University of East London, received a Master's degree in business administration from Michigan State University in East Lansing, United States. Trotman was a member of the Royal Air Force before joining Ford in 1955 as a management trainee in the United Kingdom. He was involved in the development of the Ford Cortina compact car there and was noticed by Henry Ford II. He came to the United States and earned a reputation for cost cutting. He became CEO of the company in November 1993 and remained in the position until he retired in December 1998. He was the first foreign-born CEO of the company, but was succeeded by Jacques Nasser of Australia. One of Trotman's main contributions at Ford was the Ford 2000 initiative, launched in 1995. This was an attempt to unify and consolidate Ford's manufacturing, marketing and product development forces around the world. The initiative produced $5 billion in cost savings, and produced $7 billion in profits for Ford in 1997. Some people considered it a failure, however, as many of the resulting products, were not very competitive in the American market in the long term, and the major restructuring was disruptive to the company. The inability of senior management to successfully implement this program in the mid- to late-1990s turned out to be a huge opportunity lost, one that Ford is desperately trying to leverage under the leadership of Alan Mulally in 2007. Trotman retired in January 1999 after 43 years with Ford in a variety of positions throughout Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. Trotman was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996 and was created a Life peer as Baron Trotman of Osmotherley in the County of North Yorkshire, on 2 March 1999 in recognition of his contributions to industry. Trotman was a director of ICI from 1997 until 2003 and became Chairman in January 2002. He ranked number 865 on the Sunday Times Rich List 2004 with a net worth of £45m. He died on 25 April 2005 in Yorkshire.
