Ford Motor is replacing chief executive officer Mark Fields with James Hackett, the head of the unit developing self-driving cars, the US automaker said yesterday, responding to investors’ growing unease over its stock price and prospects.
The abrupt departure of Fields, 56, who spent less than three years in the job, is among a series of management changes at Ford. Hackett, 62, a former CEO of furniture manufacturer Steelcase Inc., will take the helm in a broader shake-up aimed at speeding up decision-making and improving operations.
Ford shares were up 1.4 per cent in early trading. At Friday's close, they had fallen 37 per cent since Fields took over three years ago, at the peak of the US auto industry's recovery.
Now US sales are slipping, and Ford's profits are trailing those of larger rival General Motors, whose shares fell 13 per cent over the same period.
Executive chairman Bill Ford Jr and the board has been unhappy with the company's performance and sought reassurance that investments in self-driving cars, electric vehicles and ride services would pay off.
“With this transition, we are moving forward with great optimism,” Ford said in an employee e-mail that Reuters reviewed. “We have the right team to sharpen our operational excellence, modernise our business, and develop and invent new business models for the future.”
Hackett, a former football player at the University of Michigan and interim athletic director, was named chairman of the automaker's Ford Smart Mobility LLC subsidiary in 2016 to focus on emerging businesses that include ridesharing and autonomous vehicles.
Ford said in February it was investing $1 billion in artificial intelligence company Argo AI to develop a virtual driver system for the automaker’s autonomous vehicle coming in 2021.
The upheaval at Ford underlines pressure on all three Detroit automakers to prove they can avoid losses as the US market begins to slow from last year's record sales.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is fighting diesel emissions-cheating allegations from US and California regulators following CEO Sergio Marchionne's failed bid to find a merger partner.
GM CEO Mary Barra is fending off attacks from hedge fund Greenlight Capital, which wants to install three new directors and split the company’s stock.