- Today Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced CEO Jim Hackett has decided to retire in October. Hackett will be succeeded by COO Jim Farley.
Today Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced CEO Jim Hackett has decided to retire in October. Hackett will be succeeded by COO Jim Farley. Hackett became CEO of Ford in 2017 after succeeding Mark Fields and he oversaw an $11 billion restructuring of the company automaker.
Hackett said that he started thinking about retiring in the spring. “Let’s do it now, with the wind in our sails,” said Hackett in a call to reporters revealing that he asked himself when the right time would be to retire. “I can feel confident that the things I was asked to do have actually started taking root.”
Ford recently reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. The operating loss was less than half the $5 billion deficit that it was expecting due to the demand for the SUVs and trucks. And Ford saw over 150,000 reservations for the upcoming Bronco SUV. There were significant gains from Ford’s investment in self-driving company Argo AI as well.
Farley is going to officially take over the position on October 1 and Farley was also elected to the Ford board of directors. Farley had joined Ford from Toyota in 2007 as the global head of marketing and sales. From there, he went to Europe in 2015 to focus on cost-cutting in the overseas operations.
“We know our competition today is Amazon, Baidu, Tesla, Apple, Toyota, and others,” Farley commented. “They’re well-financed and voracious companies.”
Farley is one of the presidents that Ford promoted in February. Joe Hinrichs, the other president at the time, departed from Ford since then.
“Our new product vision — led by the Mustang Mach-E, new F-150 and Bronco family — is taking shape,” explained Ford Motor Company executive chairman Bill Ford. “We now have compelling plans for electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as full vehicle connectivity.
Hackett and Farley are going to work together as part of a transition phase going forward. And Hackett will remain at the company as an adviser through March.
