Ford CEO surprises everyone by retiring after just three years
Ford just got its fourth CEO in six years. …
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Ford has changed CEOs for the third time in six years, the company announced on Tuesday. Current CEO Jim Hackett will step down in October and be succeeded by his handpicked deputy, Chief Operating Officer Jim Farley.
Hackett made some significant changes to try to make Ford more profitable. Most dramatically, Hackett cancelled most of Ford’s car lineup in the US so the company can focus on its more profitable trucks and SUVs. Ford then announced plans for $11 billion in new investments in electric and hybrid vehicles—even as it laid off almost 20 percent of its European workforce.
“We made some significant decisions in the earliest days that were quite controversial,” Hackett said on a Tuesday conference call. “Getting out of the sedan business was a difficult question.”
Some have argued that Hackett was pushed out of Ford due to the company’s lackluster performance—Ford’s stock price is down about 40 percent since the start of Hackett’s tenure. But others argue that Hackett simply wasn’t interested in being in the top job for a long time. Hackett, now 65, joined Ford near the end of a long career. His plan may have always been to chart a new course and identify a promising successor before passing the torch.
“Hackett was always a short-termer, there to fight the fires [former CEO Mark] Fields lit,” wrote car industry reporter Dan Carney in
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