Ford appoints new CEO

Jim Hackett and Jim Farley Photo: Ford

Ford has decided to replace its CEO Jim Hackett, who is 65 years old, with COO Jim Farley, it was announced yesterday.

Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, said the board felt it was time for a change and whilst they considered going outside of the organisation to find a new CEO, like they did with p Jim Hackett, they unanimously decided that Jim Farley, who has been with Ford for 13 years, was the best candidate. Jim Hackett, when appointed, in 2017, had come from outside of the industry.

Farley takes the helm at the time where Ford has been reinventing itself for the incoming electric and autonomous era. It has the Mustang Mach E, F150 and Bronco new products in its wings. It has also begun a partnership with Volkswagen, investing in Argo Ai, the autonomous vehicle platform company, and use Volkswagen's electric vehicle architecture and Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) to design a high volume vehicle for the Europe market.