DETROIT — Ford Motor CEO Jim Hackett will retire later this year after more than three years leading the automaker and will be succeeded by COO Jim Farley, the company said Tuesday.
Hackett, 65, did not give a reason for his retirement, effective Oct. 1. Ford said he would work with Farley, 58, over the next two months to ensure a smooth transition.
"I am very grateful to Jim Hackett for all he has done to modernize Ford and prepare us to compete and win in the future," Bill Ford, Ford's executive chairman, said in a statement. "Our new product vision -- led by the Mustang Mach-E, new F-150 and Bronco family -- is taking shape.
"We now have compelling plans for electric and autonomous vehicles, as well as full vehicle connectivity. And we are becoming much more nimble, which was apparent when we quickly mobilized to make life-saving equipment at the outset of the pandemic."
Farley was named head of Ford's Europe, Middle East and Africa region in January 2015 after serving as executive vice president of global marketing and sales since 2010. He moved back to Ford's U.S. headquarters in May 2017 with expanded responsibilities that included global sales and marketing and development for electric vehicles. In May of this year he was named COO.
Hackett was elevated to CEO in May 2017 to be a change agent at Ford and help speed up its decision making. Under his tenure, Ford instituted a global redesign that prioritized what he called design-thinking.
"My goal when I took on the CEO role was to prepare Ford to win in the future," Hackett said in a statement. "The hardest thing for a proud, long-lived company to do is change to meet the challenges of the world it's entering rather than the world it has known. I'm very proud of how far we have come in creating a modern Ford and I am very optimistic about the future."
