Ford Targets North America With Management Shake-Up

WALL STREET JOURNAL reported that Ford Motor Co.'s management reorganization last week, precipitated by the departure of luxury-brand boss Wolfgang Reitzle, is less about him than about Chief Executive William Clay Ford's determination to kick the turnaround in Ford's core North American operations into a higher gear. In the process, Ford and Chief Operating Officer Nick Scheele are bidding a final farewell to the management structure and strategy they took over from ousted former Chief Executive Jacques Nasser. Ford on Friday confirmed that Reitzle, who was recruited by Mr. Nasser in 1999, will leave to become head of German engineering company Linde AG. Reitzle will maintain a consulting relationship with Ford that will pay him an undisclosed amount. Ford and Scheele rolled out a series of other changes. Ford will separate Lincoln-Mercury from the stable of luxury brands called the Premier Automotive Group that Reitzle had run and fold it back into Ford's North American operations. Lincoln-Mercury is by far the biggest piece of the Premier Automotive Group in terms of sales and revenue, and potentially in profit although the division had a loss last year. Ford named Mark Fields, a 41-year-old Ford vice president who has been leading restructuring efforts at Ford's Japanese affiliate Mazda Motor Corp., to take over the remaining Premier Group brands: Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover. Lewis Booth, who is based in Hiroshima and is a senior adviser at Mazda since the start of this year, will succeed Fields as Mazda's CEO. In North America, James G. O'Connor, 59, formerly head of the Ford marketing Division in North America, will become group vice president for North American Marketing Sales and Service, overseeing Ford and Lincoln-Mercury and reporting to Jim Padilla, group vice president in charge of North American operations. O'Connor will be succeeded by Steve Lyons, currently the Ford division's general sales manager and a 30-year company veteran.