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Ford CEO Jim Hackett will retire and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Jim Farley, the automaker announced Tuesday.
Farley will officially take office on October 1. He was also elected to Ford’s Board of Directors.
The company’s value of %age has fallen by nearly 40% since Hackett first reached the most sensible line in 2017, reaching a low of just over $4 consistent with the % of age in March before recovering from a general closure of inconsistent production in the United States and Europe due to the coronavirus crisis.
Hackett, who succeeded Mark Fields, led a $11 billion restructuring of the 117-year-old automaker. There were hypotheses in the industry about how long he would remain in the senior position, after chief operating officer Joe Hinrichs left this year after a 19-year career at the company.
This resolution noted that it clarified a succession plan for the automaker, with Farley following when Hackett withdrew.
For Hackett, time is paramount.
“He hit me in the spring,” Hackett, 65, said in a call with reporters. When he asked what the right time would be to retire, he said, “Let’s do it now, with the wind in our sails.”
Ford recently reported on effects affected by coronavirus in the second trimester that were higher than expected by Wall Street. The company also made more than 150,000 bookings for its Bronco SUV.
“Our new vision of the product, directed through the Mustang Mach-E, the new circle of F-150 and Bronco family members, is taking shape,” Bill Ford, executive chairman of the automaker, said in a statement. “We now have compelling plans for electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as full vehicle connectivity.
“And we’re fitting in a lot more agile, which dazzles when we temporarily mobilize to build life-saving devices at the start of the pandemic.”
Ford said Hackett and Farley would paint in combination for an orderly transition and that Hackett would remain on board as an advisor until March.
“My purpose when I took on the role of CEO was to prepare Ford for the future,” Hackett said in a statement. “The hardest thing for a proud and sustainable company is to replace to meet the demanding situations of the world in which it enters that the world you have experienced.”
“I’m very proud of how we’ve created a fashionable Ford and I’m very positive about the future.”
Hackett’s legacy at Ford includes the adoption of principles on “design thinking” and “human-centered design,” concepts he developed as CEO of furniture manufacturer Steelcase.
“After being in the industry for decades as a product planner, I think he knew one or two things,” said Farley, 58, who joined Ford in 2007 after a career at Toyota. But Hackett’s recommendation “changed us as corporate executives,” he added. “We’re all in it. What you’ll see in the next generation of vehicles. All this was reported through what Jim presented to us. I can’t believe In Ford without him.”
In a media call, Bill Ford said the company, founded through his great-grandfather Henry Ford, “didn’t dive deep outside” in search of a new CEO.
“Obviously we talked about hunting outside,” he said. “But they were all encouraged through Jim Farley’s leadership.”
He added that “sometimes it’s fair to pass out,” mentioning Hackett and Alan Mulally, the former Boeing executive who joined Ford before the currency crisis and as CEO helped the company with the government bailouts and bankruptcies that happened to General Motors and Chrysler. in 2009.
“But there is strength in continuity, and the board felt we were on the track, ” he said.
Ford had reviewed its control since 2019 as a component of Hackett’s recovery effort, which focused on the automaker’s “fitness,” he said. This process, Ford said, had come to an end.
“Adjustments in the direction are largely the responsibility of Jim Farley,” he said. “But I wouldn’t expect big surprises.”
In the end, Bill Ford congratulated Hackett on his contribution to the reinvention of Ford, a company that intensified when new companies like Tesla outperformed Ford in monetary terms. And that’s where Farley, who has named Amazon, Apple, Baidu and Tesla as the main competition, will have to take over.