Ford Motor Co. has made key leadership changes to support the development of electric vehicles (EV) at scale, strengthen its internal combustion product line and transform the company’s global supply chain management.
Doug Field was named chief advanced product development and technology officer. In this expanded role, he 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 a run rate of 2 million EVs per year by the end of 2026. Chuck Gray, who has been vice president of EV technology, has been named as 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,” states Jim Farley, Ford’s president and CEO. “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.”
Among those new colleagues are four leaders with Silicon Valley credentials who will strengthen Ford’s push to develop fully connected, software-defined vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. Roz Ho is appointed chief connected vehicle software officer. Ho joins Ford next month from HP, where she was vice president and global head of software. Previously, she served in several leadership roles during her 22-year tenure at Microsoft. Ho will work closely with Jae Park, who recently joined Ford as vice president of digital product design, after successful stints at Google and Amazon. They join Sammy Omari, executive director of advanced driver-assist technologies (formerly of Motional, a joint venture of Hyundai and Aptiv) and Rob Bedichek, executive director of platform architecture (formerly of Intel and Apple).
As Ford continues 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 as well. He is appointed vice president of product development operations, cycle planning and internal combustion engine programs. 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 Doug 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 lineup 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 adds. “We’re building on this rock-solid foundation with exciting new vehicles and derivatives that customers across the world will love.”
At the same time, Ford is transforming its global supply chain management capability to support efficient and reliable sourcing of components, internal development of key technologies and capabilities, and cost and quality execution. John Lawler, Ford’s CFO, will lead Ford’s global supply chain organization on an interim basis until a chief supply chain officer is selected. Jonathan Jennings, vice president of supply chain, will also take additional responsibility for supplier technical assistance and quality. He will report to Lawler.
As previously announced, Hau Thai-Tang, chief industrial platform officer, will retire Oct. 1 after more than 34 years with Ford. Ford also announced that Dave Filipe, vice president of vehicle hardware modules, will retire effective Dec. 1 after 30 years.
“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 says.
