Ford Motor is reorganizing its govt ranks because it provides new expertise and provides a handful of leaders expanded roles along with the beforehand introduced retirement of Hau Thai-Tang, the longtime product and buying chief.
CFO John Lawler will quickly oversee a makeover of Ford’s world provide chain operations as the corporate appears for a everlasting chief. Jonathan Jennings, Ford’s vp of provide chain, additionally will tackle further duty for provider technical help and high quality, the corporate mentioned on Thursday.
Doug Area, who was chief superior expertise and embedded methods officer, turns into chief superior product improvement and expertise officer. Along with his present duties overseeing EVs and software program, he’ll now be in command of design and car {hardware} engineering.
Lisa Drake, vp of EV industrialization, will now even be accountable for manufacturing engineering. And Jim Baumbick, previously vp of business platform, operations and new mannequin launch for Ford Blue, now will oversee all product improvement for Ford’s gasoline autos as vp for product improvement operations, cycle planning and inside combustion engine packages.
Chuck Grey, who has been Ford’s vp of EV expertise, is now vp, car {hardware} engineering.
“As we enter an intense interval of execution for Ford Mannequin e and our $50 billion funding in breakthrough electrical and digital autos, Doug, Lisa and Chuck are taking over bigger roles and constructing out very succesful groups,” Ford CEO Jim Farley mentioned in a press release. “Creating and scaling the following technology of electrical and software-defined autos requires a unique focus and mixture of expertise from the completed Ford workforce and plenty of thrilling new colleagues becoming a member of our firm.”
Drake and Grey report back to Area. Baumbick reviews to Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue.
Moreover, Ford mentioned it has employed 4 new executives with “Silicon Valley credentials.”
Rox Ho, former vp and world head of software program at HP, will be a part of Ford subsequent month as chief related car software program officer. Ford says she is going to work intently with Jae Park, who not too long ago was employed as vp of digital product design after stints at Google and Amazon.
Sammy Omari is now Ford’s govt director of superior driver help applied sciences. He beforehand labored at Motional, a three way partnership between Hyundai and Aptiv.
The corporate additionally introduced the hiring of Rob Bedichek, govt director of platform structure. He beforehand labored at Intel and Apple.
Thai-Tang’s retirement after 34 years at Ford is efficient Oct. 1. The corporate mentioned Dave Filipe, vp of car {hardware} modules, is also retiring. Filipe is leaving Dec. 1 after 28 years on the automaker.
“We’re grateful for Hau’s and Dave’s vital contributions to Ford and our Ford+ plan, which helped set the stage for our thrilling future,” Farley mentioned.