Outgoing Ford CEO Alan Mulally (left), the man who transformed Ford Motor Co. from a dysfunctional money-loser to a thriving company, will retire July 1 and long-time Ford executive Mark Fields (right), currently COO, will replace him.
Fields, 53, will be named Ford president and chief executive officer and elected as a member of the company's board of directors. He won't name a new COO and plans no executive changes: "The structure's just right now."
Mulally, 68, will retire from the Ford board as well as from his CEO post, and is not planning to work elsewhere. "Retirement sounds good," he said at a "town hall" meeting of employees at Ford's Dearborn headquarters, where the change was announced.
His Ford stock holdings are valued at roughly $300 million, so he doesn't need to work if he doesn't want to.
Bill Ford (center), chairman of the car company, said that when he hired Mulally away from Boeing in 2006, they talked about "all the great things about the Ford culture and the not-so-great things about the Ford culture, and we talked about changing the latter. Here we are eight years later and we did it," Ford said with a wide smile, to enthusiastic applause.
"We did it," Mulally agreed moments later.
In 2006, Mulally's first year at Ford, Ford lost $12.6 billion. It posted another $17.5 billion in red ink the next two years, but in 2009, as rivals continued to struggle, Ford reported a profit of $2.7 billion.
Last year, Ford reported a profit of $7.2 billion, and has earned more than $43 billion under Mulally despite the tough start.
Before becoming COO, Fields was in charge of Ford's operations in the Americas and reversed losses, making North America a profit engine.
"Mark Fields is well positioned to succeed Mulally after 25 years with the company," said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
"His previous role as the head of Mazda gives him experience in the Asia-Pacific market, a critical region for growth going forward. In recent years Mark Fields ran operations and cut costs at Ford while serving as a key advisor to Alan Mulally in the formation and execution of the One Ford plan."
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article edited from USA TODAY
