Ford Motor Co. mentioned Hau Thai-Tang, just one of its top solution development and obtaining executives, and Frederiek Toney, chief of its shopper service division, will retire this 12 months.
Thai-Tang, Ford’s main industrial platforms officer, will retire Oct. 1 following far more than 34 many years at Ford, the automaker explained Thursday. Toney, vice president of the Ford Shopper Assistance Division, will retire Dec. 1 after roughly 22 years with the company.
Ford stated Toney will be replaced by Dave Bozeman, who most recently was vice president of Amazon Transportation Solutions. Bozeman will also direct Ford Blue’s fanatic car brand names in the U.S., which includes Bronco, Raptor and Mustang. Ford did not immediately title a substitution for Thai-Tang.
“All of us at Ford are extremely grateful to Hau for his unrelenting enthusiasm for serving our customers with great products and solutions, and his thoughtful and compassionate leadership,” Ford CEO Jim Farley claimed in a statement.
Thai-Tang, 56, joined Ford in 1988 and has served in a quantity of higher-profile engineering roles, together with as chief engineer of the 2005 Mustang. He has said his favorite assignment, while, came in 1993 when he used a year embedded with the Newman/Haas racing crew in close proximity to Chicago for the future IndyCar season as a car or truck dynamics engineer.
“It was a watershed minute for me,” he informed Automotive News in 2018. “It grew to become 1 of the assignments that catapulted me in the organization. To this day, I continue to talk about it.”
Lately, Thai-Tang helped spearhead the improvement of items this kind of as the Bronco, Maverick and Mustang Mach-E. As a person of Ford’s best supplier liaisons, he also assisted steer the business by the coronavirus pandemic and current offer chain disruptions.
“I’m extremely grateful and honored to have served at Ford and happy to be leaving the company with just one of the strongest, freshest and most pleasing solution lineups in our wonderful heritage,” Thai-Tang stated in a assertion. “I plan to dash throughout the complete line as we get ready to introduce extra excellent solutions like the seventh-era Mustang, and work carefully with Jim, my Ford colleagues and our good suppliers on a sleek transition.”
Thai-Tang was so influential at Ford that Elon Musk desired him to turn out to be CEO of Tesla.
According to the ebook Electricity Perform: Tesla, Elon Musk and the Bet of the Century, Musk offered Thai-Tang the function in 2007 as the company worked to carry its very first vehicle, the Roadster, to marketplace.
Musk brought him to California to exam generate the Roadster, and then-CEO Martin Eberhard reportedly mentioned he “had hardly ever viewed any individual drive so aggressively.” Thai-Tang, according to creator Tim Higgins, provided suggestions as effectively as praise, noting that “this is genuinely wonderful.”
Thai-Tang ultimately wasn’t interested in the work, whilst the guide says he presented the title of a headhunter he believed Tesla could use in its executive search.
Toney, 66, joined Ford in 2000 and has aided its buyer assistance division turn into 1 of the most various units in just the corporation. He was named 1 of Automotive News’ inaugural Champions of Diversity past year.
“I’ve experienced a wonderful operate and it’s been an honor to help build FCSD into a first-class corporation that is poised for even larger achievements,” Toney explained in a assertion. “I’m most very pleased of how we have taken care of our valued clients and contributed to the results of Ford by modernizing and growing crucial enterprises like consumer solutions, areas and extras.
“It’s been my privilege to serve this good corporation and work with wonderful colleagues who turned expensive friends. With each other, we’ll make this a seamless handoff and I’ll continue on to cheer on and be an ambassador for Ford.”
Bozeman, who joins Ford on Sept. 1 and also has been named a firm officer, will report to Kumar Galhotra, head of the Ford Blue division of internal combustion cars.
“I felt a perception of mission and a motivation to favourable alter from anyone I met at Ford,” Bozeman explained in a statement. “I’m a builder and appreciate to innovate, and the chance to be portion of reworking this excellent business and enhancing people’s lives resonated with me as an exciting exclamation place for my career.”
Equally Thai-Tang and Toney are previous Automotive Information All-Stars.