The Ford Motor Company has appointed its current chief operating officer Jim Farley to lead the company as president and chief executive officer from October 1.
He replaces the incumbent Jim Hackett who has led the company’s transformation since 2017, and has elected to retire from the company.
Ford says the two men will work together on a smooth leadership transition over the next two months.
The company says under Hackett’s leadership it moved aggressively into the new era of smart vehicles and drove a deeper focus on customers’ wants and needs. At the same time, Ford improved the fitness of the base business – restructuring operations, invigorating the product portfolio and reducing bureaucracy.
“Our new product vision – led by the Mustang Mach-E, new F-150 and Bronco family – is taking shape. We now have plans for electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as full vehicle connectivity. And we are becoming much more nimble, which was apparent when we mobilised to make life-saving equipment at the outset of the pandemic,” Ford says.
Farley collaborated with Hackett over the past three years to develop and execute Ford’s Creating Tomorrow Together plan to transform Ford into a higher-growth, higher-margin business.
“Jim Farley matches an innate feel for cars and customers with great instincts for the future and the new technologies that are changing our industry,” Ford says. “Jim’s passion for great vehicles and his intense drive for results are well known, and I have also seen him develop into a transformational leader with the determination and foresight to help Ford thrive into the future.”
Farley joined Ford in 2007 as global head of marketing and sales and went on to lead Lincoln, Ford South America, Ford of Europe and all Ford global markets. In April 2019, he was chosen to lead Ford’s new businesses, technology & strategy team, helping the company to capitalise on forces reshaping the industry – such as software platforms, connectivity, AI, automation and new forms of propulsion. He was named chief operating officer in February of this year.
Hackett, who will continue as a special advisor to Ford through March of 2021, said the time is right to pass the mantle of leadership to Jim Farley.
“My goal when I took on the CEO role was to prepare Ford to win in the future,” Hackett says.
“The hardest thing for a proud, long-lived company to do is change to meet the challenges of the world it’s entering rather than the world it has known. I’m very proud of how far we have come in creating a modern Ford and I am very optimistic about the future.
“I have worked side-by-side with Jim Farley for the past three years and have the greatest confidence in him as a person and a leader.
“He has been instrumental in crafting our new product portfolio and redesigning our businesses around the world. He is also a change agent with a deep understanding of how to lead Ford in this new era defined by smart vehicles in a smart world,” Hackett says.
