Ford Strengthens North American Product Development Operations

    DEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 6 Ford Motor Company
today announced changes that will strengthen its North American product
development organization and increase the focus on the customer.  These
changes are effective Oct. 1.

    Chris Theodore is named vice president, Ford North America Product
Development, with car and truck product development operations reporting to
him.  Previously, the car and truck groups had reported separately.  Theodore
will report directly to Nick Scheele, group vice president North America and
to Richard Parry-Jones, group vice president, Global Product Development and
chief technical officer.

    Gurminder Bedi, vice president truck product development, is announcing
his retirement from the company after 30 years of service.

    "By combining the truck and car product development teams, we will have
one common process for all products and increase focus on the customer,"
Scheele said.  "In an extremely competitive marketplace we need to be able to
move quickly and utilize the talents of our people in all areas of the
business.  Our goal is to build the best cars and trucks in the industry."

    Theodore is responsible for product development for all Ford brand
products in North America.  Reporting to Theodore will be Tom Baughman,
executive director of the Tough Trucks group, Dee Kapur, executive director of
the Outfitters (SUV's) group and Mike Zevalkink, executive director of the
Ford car group.  In addition, Al Ver, vice president, Advanced Manufacturing
Engineering, will report to Theodore as well as to Jim Padilla, group vice
president Manufacturing.  This will allow the manufacturing team to work more
closely with the product development team to optimize the relationship between
the development and manufacturing of new products.

    Referring to Bedi, Scheele said:  "Throughout his career, Gurminder has
been a driving force for the Ford team and helped build a solid foundation for
the truck operations.  His strong character, drive, enthusiasm and leadership
will be missed."

    Bedi has been vice president of the truck product development group since
January, 1998.  Under Bedi's leadership, Ford set the pace for trucks and
SUV's in the industry.  The quick success of the new 2001 Ford Escape small
sport utility gave Ford a market leader in every truck and SUV segment.
Additionally, Bedi was instrumental in delivering on Ford's series of
"Cleaner, Safer, Sooner" pledges -- making all pickups and SUV's Low Emission
Vehicles ahead of any regulatory requirement, introducing leading safety
technology in the 2002 Ford Explorer, and committing to introduce a hybrid-
electric Escape in 2003 and to improve the fuel economy of Ford's SUV fleet by
25 percent by 2005.

    Bedi was President of Ford Argentina and Brazil Operations from December,
1994 to September, 1996.  Before that, he was Managing Director of Autolatina,
the Ford/Volkswagen joint venture in South America.

    Theodore had been vice president, car product development since March 1,
1999.  In that role, he worked to re-energize the Ford car lineup with the
introduction of the legendary Thunderbird.  In addition, Theodore oversaw
ongoing product development of the Ford Taurus, Crown Victoria, Windstar,
Focus and Mustang.  Theodore was part of the team that recently reorganized
Ford's car and truck product development operations into teams or "clusters"
that share common components, technologies and engineering resources.  The
system is designed to improve the speed and efficiency of the development
process and deliver products that delight customers.

    "Chris Theodore is a strong leader and innovator with a great sense of the
business," Scheele added.  "I am looking forward to working with him and the
entire product development team to continue to build on a strong foundation
and assure our customers they are buying quality cars and trucks from Ford."