Ford's leaders have watched Mark Fields, a brash Harvard MBA, turn the company's North American business into a profit machine. Now the CEO job is his to lose.
Fields, who has spent seven years as head of Ford's Americas division, will become chief operating officer on Dec. 1. He will report to CEO Alan Mulally, 67, who said that he plans to remain CEO at least through 2014.
Fields, 51, will lead day-to-day operations and head up the company's weekly business reviews with senior leadership. All of the company's business units will report to him.
The announcement puts to rest - for now - the swirl of speculation about Ford's succession plans.
The sunny, charismatic Mulally will lead the company's long-term strategy and mentor the new leadership team.
Standard and Poor's Investors Service reiterated its "buy" rating on Ford's shares, saying the plan should reassure investors because Mulally will stay on.
Fields, though, has been a big player in Ford's return from near-collapse. Executive chairman Bill Ford said Fields has managed the transformation of the company's North American operations, which were losing billions of dollars when Fields took over that key region in October 2005. The company closed plants, laid off thousands of workers, streamlined its vehicle-development process and introduced strong new vehicles like the Explorer and Fusion. Earlier this week, Ford reported a record $2.3-billion pretax profit in North America.
"I put Mark in that job seven years ago. The growth that we've all seen in him has been remarkable," Bill Ford said.
Ford stopped short of saying Fields would definitely be named CEO when Mulally retires, but he did say he would prefer Ford's next CEO to come from inside the company.
"I always look at talent, not only internally but externally. But I'm very happy with the team we've put together," he said.
Joe Hinrichs, who is now head of Asia Pacific and Africa, will replace Fields as head of the Americas. Hinrichs, 45, who ran Ford's manufacturing operations before taking over Asia, has also been frequently mentioned as a successor to Mulally.
Ford hasn't had a COO since 2006, when former president and COO Jim Padilla retired. Mulally said he has never worked with a COO, either at Ford or at Boeing Co., where he spent 36 years before coming to Ford.
"I'm really looking forward to nurturing Mark and supporting this team," Mulally said.
