Sleepless in Detroit: Ronald Goldsberry has his work cut out for him steering Ford through recall.

When Ford Motor Co. recalled 8.7 million of its cars and light trucks last April, Ronald Goldsberry knew the little free time he enjoyed would quickly vanish.

As vice president and general manager of Ford's Customer Service Division, Goldsberry already routinely arrived home after 10 p.m. Now, with the largest auto safety recall in U.S. history, the 53-year-old isn't joking when he says, "I haven't had much sleep."

Goldsberry's late nights started long before the media reported on the ignition switches thought to be responsible for fires in many Ford and Lincoln-Mercury models. In 1992, the National Highway Safety Administration began investigating the faulty switches. By the fall of 1995, Ford volunteered to recall some 248,000 vehicles in Canada after a reported 260 ignition fires. In total, the NHSA has received nearly 900 reports of ignition fires in some of the 23 million cars having the switch.

As one of 10 senior executives on Ford's recall committee, he was charged with the job of analyzing and troubleshooting dealer warranty reports. "The dealers are our primary interface with customers," says Goldsberry, who oversees Ford's over 5,000 dealerships. "We have call centers where people can make direct contact with us. But most of the time, if they have a problem, they take it to the dealer first."

Working with service engineers, safety professionals, and, most importantly, the dealers, the committee ruled to recall many of its 1988-93 models. As a result, the No. 2 automaker was praised by the National Highway Safety Agency for instituting the recall and thus averting even more negative publicity and lawsuits.

The recalls will be costly; it's estimated that each vehicle returned to the automaker will cost Ford about $50. Currently, 700,000 ignition switches have been replaced, and 20% of the vehicles have been scrapped. Yet, Wall Street analysts predict that due to consumer apathy, less than 50% of the remaining vehicles will be brought in for repair. In some ways, the negative publicity could actually benefit Ford: perhaps some of those who bring in their older cars for repairs will consider buying newer models.

Paving such leadership inroads is nothing new for the Wilmington, Delaware, native. With an advanced degree in chemistry, Goldsberry began his career as a research chemist. After working in academia and at NASA, Hewlett Packard and Gulf Oil, Goldsberry joined Occidental Petroleum Co. (Parker Chemical), where he later became CEO.

Ford acquired the company in 1983, and Goldsberry, with an M.B.A. from Stanford, was appointed Ford's general manager of the Plastic and Trim Products Division four years later. Since 1994, he has directed the multibillion dollar division, which handles customer service as well as domestic parts and service, marketing, dealership diagnostics, training and owner relations.

Free time will continue to elude Goldsberry as he makes the transition to vice president of global customer service. The move will double his staff to 14,000, and take him to manufacturing plants and potential markets throughout China, Eastern Europe and Indonesia.

"People ask me if I will be traveling more than I do now, but I don't think that's humanly possible," says Goldsberry, who is on the road almost every other day. "Now, only the locations will change."

Perhaps the longer flights will give him time to catch up on his sleep.