Allen Park — Rod Wood, the Lions’ new president, has attended every meeting of the team’s board of directors the past year.
In his job as chief executive of the Ford family’s estate, he worked closely with the family the past eight years and said he has a close relationship with Lions owner and chairwoman Martha Firestone Ford and her four children.
Wood, wearing a tailored navy suit, introduced himself to the media and, by proxy, Lions fans Friday afternoon, and while he discussed the importance of hiring a smart football person to run the team’s personnel and salary cap, he honestly acknowledged that his past work with the Fords helped him earn his new job.