(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co <F.N>’s Jim Farley, who is chief operating officer, will succeed Jim Hackett as the auto maker’s chief executive and president on Oct. 1, the company said on Tuesday.
Farley, 58, joined Ford in 2007 and headed the company’s New Businesses, Technology and Strategy group before being named COO in March.
Hackett and Farley will work together during a two-month transition.
Shares of the company rose 2.8% in early trading.
Ford is in the midst of a global restructuring and faces slumping demand in China, its second-largest market.
The No.2 U.S. automaker’s $11 billion restructuring is far from complete.
In China, Ford lost $771 million last year, about half its 2018 loss, and its market share there has shrunk. The company has struggled to revive sales in China since its business began slumping in late 2017, and now the world’s largest market has been hit by the fast-spreading novel coronavirus.
Farley previously led Lincoln, South America, Ford of Europe and all of Ford’s global markets in successive roles.
He is credited, along with Hackett, with forcing the redesign before its introduction of the all-electric Mach-E crossover, and the decision to make it a Mustang vehicle, leveraging that iconic brand.
Farley has owned seven of the cars, starting with a 1965 model he restored when he was 14 years old.
(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru, Paul Lienert in Detroit and Dave Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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