Former Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. is joining Ford’s Board of Directors. Huntsman previously served as U.S. Ambassador to China and Utah’s Governor.
Ford also announced the retirement of veteran executives Derrick Kuzak and Lewis Booth. Kuzak, who held the title of Group Vice President and Global Product Development Chief, led Ford’s push to develop global models rather than region-specific varities. Booth, who retires as CFO, will be remembered for selling off Ford’s Premier Auto Group (which included Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin) as well as his leadership of Ford’s finances during their recovery. Replacing Kuzak and Booth are Bob Shanks, formerly Vice President and Controller, and Raj Nair, who held the title of VP of Engineering and Global Product Development.
Derek, you misspelled Mr. Huntsman’s first name. It’s Jon, not John.
Thank you. I had his official biography right next to me while typing the article…coffee break needed…
Yep, get coffee. Then you can fix the typo in the headline. “Hunstman” for “Huntsman.”
Happy to oblige. And you’re not alone. Autoblog made the same mistake. Their newish comment system is such a pain, though, that I’ll let someone else point it out to them.
I wonder if this means Ford’s going to try and make a push in China.
>>I wonder if this means Ford’s going to try and make a push in China.
If they are, he’s probably the best guy to hire.
as a member of the BoD, he’s not going to be operationally involved in running the business in China, though he may be able to provide contacts/counsel in that role.
there is already quite an organization in place in China, it’s just starting from a relatively small place as compared to GM or VW.
I think he’ll do more than just contacts and counsel. Sometimes when you’re on a board you do get pretty heavily involved. Not everyone is a figurehead.
Huntsman seems like an intelligent guy. Early on I liked him as one of the few sane choices in the GOP nomination race. I guess the GOP’s loss is Ford’s gain on this one.
Definitely agree, as he was the only candidate of the seven that I felt comfortable voting for. Of course, that meant he came in last in all the poles. Little matter of not appealing at all to the hard right wingers.
Somehow, I feel his talents will be better used here, and with greater appreciation.
I could have considered voting for him too, but he dropped out before my state even had a say in the matter. Not that he would have gotten anywhere anyway. Sanity and nuance don’t mean anything in the current political climate.
Well, that cost me $100; I was predicting a Romney/Huntsman ticket for this year’s entertainment in the local betting pool.
I do love the change in path. “Screw you guys; I’m going to do something productive!”
Nah… Two Mormons on the same ticket would be too much for the extreme religious right to stomach, which I think today’s Republican party panders to.
Huntsman is obviously a smart guy and not prone to the levels of belligerent BS that the rest of the candidates are (save for Ron Paul). Maybe his level, rational head hurt his chances, which is a poor reflection on the intelligence of American voters & the media. Either way, probably a plus for Ford, and probably also a plus for Huntsman when he hopefully runs again with more visibility in 2016.
I think the person who will be most happy at this news will Mark Fields. Lewis Booth was the only person who could challenge the useless shite for Ford’s CEO position. With Mr Booth gone, Fields is game on for the big chair.
For f*ck’s sake….
Wait till Henry Ford hears about this…
For sure he’s got the hottest wife of any other politician.
Nope. Dennis Kucinich.
maybe he can have his daughters make some Ford You Tube vids…
How about some sort of actual editorial comment on this ? just publishing the press release details without making an attempt to read anything into it is pretty lazy.
Kuzak is seriously good people, the organization will be different without him, tho Nair is also good people from what I’ve seen. The other moves which happened lower but don’t rate press releases are also positive from the inside looking out.
Making “an attempt to read into it” is also known as “wild, baseless, speculative conjecture”, and that’s not allowed here. If you want to read something pulled out of someone’s ass, go to one of the many blogs out there. I don’t know enough about Kuzak and Booth’s replacements to comment, so I won’t until I know more.
it’s not “wild, baseless, speculative conjecture” to read the background of the new people (included in the press releases AFAIK) and make reasoned comment on them. or to cast historical perspective on the time during which Kuzak and Booth have been leading their respective portions of the company, clear from reading their backgrounds.
it’s not baseless speculation to figure that Huntsman’s addition to the board might be an assist to Ford’s attempt to expand operations in China.
in reality tho, it’s a pretty dry inside baseball sort of new item, witness the commentary pretty much universally going to a discussion of Hunstman’s presidental run…
in reality tho, it’s a pretty dry inside baseball sort of new item,
So, you just answered your own question. Kuzak streamlined product development. Booth handled the money and sold off PAG, which turned out to be a smart move. For anyone by a die-hard Ford enthusiast who subscribes to Ford press releases (such as yourself I assume), that’s the extent of the information’s relevance.
For people such as myself who don’t receive Ford press releases, I thought this was an interesting piece of news even without any editorial.
I don’t subscribe to them, they get sent to me :-) like everyone else who works here – note the bit in my original comment about how this plays from the inside looking out.
there have been far more involved stories (and analysis or opinion pieces) in the past dealing with internal moves at GM and other places. maybe it’s because there are a more people involved with TTAC with more experience inside GM, or GM has more entertaining personalities to cover, along with more internal moves. perhaps ultimately the story here is more that it’s _not_ a story – there isn’t anything particularly unsettling or exciting about it, just people getting on with a largely successful plan. which relative to the chaos which has in the recent past been going on other companies, _is_ a story.
one of the things which has been clear over the last 5+ years is that upper management within Ford PD has been stable and successful. there are lots of interesting things I could add beyond that, but being as they are completely insider stuff, I will keep my mouth shut. it is always fun to watch people flail around on the outside – including so-called expert analysts and “industry veterans” who get things very wrong, very often.
I think the nature of content (and perhaps the goals of the site, it’s demographics, etc) are such that simple news items w/o further comment are more prevalent than editorial content. which was the whole reason that TTAC was an interesting place to go. I don’t think TTAC has a chance to compete with the likes of Autoblog for eyeballs/big pictures/total traffic/etc, nor Jalopnik for snark/whatever else it offers, but I think it becomes less of a destination if it is overrun with press-release based content. I guess just throwing something on the table gets the conversation started, but part of the reason the site was interesting is that it had a particular (and peculiar, perhaps too virulent at times) editorial stance at it’s heart. Ed was not RF (and thank god for that, constant haranguing, axe-wielding and nose-cutting to spite faces gets old after a while) but he had more to say (or ask) than seems to exist now. the reviews and personal anecdote-based stories are still very good, but perhaps the industry coverage has fallen off a bit. perhaps the industry landscape has solidified enough that there isn’t as much to cover there as well.
It’s been 36 days since Ed left. There’s no bailouts or death watches on. High drama does not happen every single day. Times change. I believe your comments are valid, but as you said, things have solidified. Products, personnel changes, auto shows are what’s making waves, rather than the possible collapse of an entire industry.
Like you said, quite correctly
“it is always fun to watch people flail around on the outside – including so-called expert analysts and “industry veterans” who get things very wrong, very often”
I firmly believe it’s better to keep your mouth shut than to go down this route. If there was anything I knew that I had verified and could report on, it would be on TTAC.
Also, unlike other sites, we don’t need to compete on any kind of traffic based metric. You will never ever see us reporting on baseless rumors, or worse, new boarding pass designs or photos of disabled people driving electric wheelchairs during a snow storm. I will disembowel myself via live webcast before I ever run that content.
The appeal of TTAC is not the original articles or press releases, but rather the insightful and sometimes (fortunately) humorous comments. The comments section provides “wild, baseless, speculative conjecture”. I prefer this NOT be in the articles.
Here’s mine … sure seems like republicans are perpetually preoccupied looking for someone to argue with. Now have at it …
Huntsman is the best politician to come out of Utah in a generation and it’s not even close. No matter where you lie on the political spectrum, Utah’s current crop of politicos has been nothing but a bunch of self-serving, unintelligent and unreasonable chumps. Huntsman was a reasonable governor who would have been an excellent presidential candidate. And as a pretty dark blue Democrat, that’s saying a lot.
Ford’s better off having him, and Utah continues to miss him.
Ron Paul , Jon Huntsman , and Gary Johnson are three republican/libertarian candidates I would have no trouble voting for in 2012 . Unfortunately the GOP now rejects moderate candidates . Time is long past due for a moderate third party !
Maybe … unfortunately we have a “one party split in two” system of democracy. Getting these two to allow it to be split into three would be like getting convicts to split a bounty in three instead of two … it’s not gonna happen.
How long before he quits this job, too? I’d be more impressed with this guy if he could finish at least ONE job. He’s nothing but a dishonest silver-spoon climber.
I won’t argue; just look: )Mary Kaye Huntsman with family) : http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/7Bqnn08o_0R/John+Huntsman+Announces+Bid+Presidency+NJ/Gvync02Py1I/Jon+Huntsman