The president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co. is coming back home to Lawrence next week to share his insights about a couple of industries he knows well.

Alan Mulally, who grew up in Lawrence, graduated from Lawrence High School, received engineering degrees at Kansas University and now serves on KU’s School of Engineering Advisory Board, will deliver the annual Anderson Chandler Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday at the Lied Center.

His topic, “Working Together,” will allow the engineer and executive to draw on his lengthy career at Boeing Co. and recent work at Ford to discuss a future where getting from one place to another will continue to be a major component of people’s lives.

Mulally plans to open with unscripted remarks, then take questions from the audience.

“We will have a wonderful conversation about working together in the aerospace and automobile industries to create even more safe and efficient transportation for all,” Mulally said Wednesday.

On campus earlier Monday, Mulally plans to take questions from engineering and business students at Eaton Hall – the building named for Robert Eaton, a KU graduate who once led another major American automaker, as chairman of Chrysler.

Monday night’s lecture will be Mulally’s second public appearance in Lawrence during the past month. He came to town in March to serve as grand marshal of the Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and to donate a new Ford van to Douglas County Senior Services on behalf of his mother, Lauraine Mulally.

Mulally’s visit comes as Ford works to stem its losses, which hit $12.7 billion last year. He joined the automaker Sept. 1 after 37 years at Boeing, where he had started as an engineer fresh out of KU and went on to work on every major commercial airplane project since the 727. Mulally had been CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes since 2001, having served as the business unit’s president since 1998.

Mulally earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from KU, and earned a master’s in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1994, Mulally received the Distinguished Engineering Service Award from KU’s School of Engineering, and earned KU’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Citation, in 2002.