Contact:
Chriss Swaney
Carnegie Mellon 412-268-5776

Lincoln Hill
Ford Motor Co.
313-203-7134

For immediate release:
August 24, 2004

Carnegie Mellon University To Host Engineering Alumnus Responsible for Launch of New Legendary Ford Mustang

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University researchers, faculty and students will meet Thursday, August 26, with Hau Thai-Tang, the chief nameplate engineer for Ford Mustang, to discuss several new Ford product launches and what it's like to work in the automotive industry.

Mechanical engineering alumnus Thai-Tang graduated from Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering and joined Ford as a Ford college graduate trainee in 1988. While on campus, he will also meet with members of the award-winning, Society of Automotive Engineer's formula-style racecar team, which recently competed in Detroit and Pittsburgh's Vintage Grand Prix races.

Thai-Tang says he was 5 years old when the USO imported a couple of Mustang fastbacks to his native Vietnam to boost the morale of homesick American troops. The prospect of owning a Mustang seemed remote until Saigon fell years later, and his family fled to America.

"For me, as a boy, my aspirations were pretty simple, just to own a car," he said. "So having a chance to work on Mustang, of all things, has exceeded all my wildest dreams."

Thai-Tang is helping head a nationwide tour for Ford Motor Company that showcases the new Ford Five Hundred flagship sedan, the Ford Freestyle, which bridges the gap between sedans and SUVs and the fifth-generation Mustang.

WHEN: 11 a.m. to noon, Thursday, August 26.

WHERE: Carnegie Mellon campus, between the University Center and tennis courts.