Mark Fields entered the automotive industry while his MBA colleagues ventured into investment banking and he does not regret a thing.
The soon-to-be CEO at Ford had experienced a lot of demanding jobs during his 25-year stint at the car business. He managed operations in South America, Asia and Europe while deciding on plant closings and drastic job terminations in the U.S. The newly named chief operating officer will succeed a CEO who impressed investors from saving the company from crashing and handle an era of Ford's driverless cars.
Fields was named as the CEO of Ford in 2012, letting him run daily operations and further guaranteeing his role as the next head after Alan Mulally. The 53-year-old will effectively become CEO on July 1, in time for Mulally's retirement as head of the second-largest automaker in the United States. Fields will occupy the board seat after Mulally, a former executive of Boeing Co. who handled Ford and avoided the bankruptcies and bailouts that happened to its predecessors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. during the economic crisis.
Mulally first said he would finish the year at Ford but later decided to retire earlier when he knew that the team he had trained was ready to take off. The 68-year-old shed a few tears on May 4 after he announced his retirement at Ford's world HQ in Michigan and received a standing ovation from the employees.
Bill Ford admitted that senior level transitions may have never gone well at Ford before but he knows this turnover will be smooth. Mulally is one of the few "Hall of Fame CEO" who is level headed enough not to exit with a tantrum. "To Alan's great credit, he could let go -- and a lot of CEOs can't," Bill Ford said.
Ford said that controlling his calendar was tough "because the system will grab someone in my position 24 hours a day, seven days a week and plan me for the next five years if I let it happen." Meanwhile, despite being new to the position, Fields seems confident that he will remain disciplined as CEO. "I'm very cognizant that when you become CEO, you have to focus and choose to be very disciplined on how you spend your time ... but you don't really know until you sit in the chair what it will be like," Fields said.
