Ford President and CEO Jim Farley has a penchant for reorganizing his executives to meet the challenges of the moment. He’s done this on several occasions before and after taking the big chair in October 2020.
Today, Ford announced yet another management shakeup to address the changing landscape of supply chain, electrification and legacy ICE development.
Farley named Doug Field chief advanced product development and technology officer. In this expanded role, Field will continue to oversee EV products, software and digital systems development, and advanced driver assistance, while also taking on design and vehicle hardware engineering.
Lisa Drake, vice president of EV industrialization, will now also be responsible for manufacturing engineering as Ford scales to produce 2 million EVs per year by the end of 2026. Chuck Gray, who has been vice president of EV technology, is now vice president of vehicle hardware engineering. Both Drake and Gray report to Field, as does Anthony Lo, Ford’s chief design officer.
“As we enter an intense period of execution for Ford Model e and our $50 billion investment in breakthrough electric and digital vehicles, Doug, Lisa and Chuck are taking on larger roles and building out very capable teams,” Farley said.
“Developing and scaling the next generation of electric and software-defined vehicles requires a different focus and mix of talent from the accomplished Ford team and many exciting new colleagues joining our company.”
New faces at Ford
Ford is bringing in four executives with Silicon Valley experience. The new hires are expected to strengthen Ford’s push to develop fully connected, software-defined vehicles, and advanced driver assistance systems.
Roz Ho, who joins Ford from Hewlett-Packard, has been appointed chief connected vehicle software officer. She had been serving HP as a vice president and global head of software after working several leadership roles over 22 years at Microsoft. Ho will work closely with Jae Park, who recently joined Ford as vice president, digital product design, after successful stints at Google and Amazon.
Sammy Omari comes to Ford as executive director of advanced driver assist technologies. He had previously worked at Motional, a joint venture of Hyundai and Aptiv. Finally, Rob Bedichek has been brought on board as executive director of platform architecture. Bedichek arrives with experience at both Intel and Apple.
ICE is not gone yet
As Ford works to build out a portfolio of both EVs from Ford Model e and Ford Blue internal combustion vehicles, Jim Baumbick is taking on additional responsibility. He has been serving as vice president- industrial pillar, operations, and new model launch for Ford Blue. He has now been appointed vice president, product development operations, cycle planning and internal combustion engine programs.
With his new portfolio Baumbick will oversee the development of all Ford Blue products, as well as lead cycle planning, vehicle development engineering, and product development operations for all of Ford. He will report to Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, and partner closely with Field and his team on the broader development of all products at Ford.
“Jim Baumbick has been a driving force behind our incredible Ford Blue line-up built around icons like F-Series, Mustang, Ranger, and Bronco, and new hits like Maverick that have driven significant demand and market share gains,” Farley said. “We’re building on this rock-solid foundation with exciting new vehicles and derivatives that customers across the world will love.”
Supply chain management still up in the air
While it restructures to meet new product development goals, Ford is also transforming its global supply chain management capability to support component sourcing, internal technology development, and cost and quality execution.
John Lawler, Ford’s chief financial officer, will lead Ford’s global supply chain organization on an interim basis until a chief supply chain officer is selected. Jonathan Jennings, vice president, supply chain, will also take additional responsibility for supplier technical assistance and quality. He will report to Lawler.
Notable retirements
As previously announced, Hau Thai-Tang, chief industrial platform officer, will retire Oct. 1 after a more-than-34-year career with Ford. Ford also announced Dave Filipe, vice president, vehicle hardware modules, will retire effective Dec. 1 after 30 years with Ford.
“We’re grateful for Hau’s and Dave’s significant contributions to Ford and our Ford+ plan, which helped set the stage for our exciting future,” Farley said.
