After being dismissed from his role as Ford’s President in the North American market last February, Raj Nair, previously Ford’s Chief Technical Officer and the driving force behind the current Ford GT program, has been made President and Chief Operating Officer of Canada’s Multimatic Motorsports. The company is perhaps best known for its Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers, as well as being the company to produce the 2017+ Ford GT under contract for Ford, turning out examples of the limited-run, carbon-fiber supercar from its small Ontario factory.
In other words, even though he’s no longer with Ford, Nair hasn’t landed very far from the GT at all.
Raj Nair’s appointment was first spotted by Road & Track contributor Bozi Tatarevic, and later confirmed by Multimatic’s Vice President of Marketing, Michael Guttilla. The 54-year-old executive “brings extensive knowledge, perspective and skills in engineering, manufacturing, management and overall auto industry experience to Multimatic,” Guttilla told R&T. “These qualities will help Multimatic attain another level of performance for our customers.”
Guttilla went on to say that the appointment “was about making a great company even better. His skill-set is perfectly aligned with Multimatic’s core competencies and purpose.”
Nair himself appears to have commented on the news on Ford GT Forum, writing that he’s “really excited about joining the Multimatic team and our future! And of course, I’m so happy to be able to stay part of the GT community!”
Raj Nair’s sudden departure from Ford Motor Company was announced on February 21st, 2018, after an internal investigation into allegations of “inappropriate behavior” uncovered evidence of actions “inconsistent with the company’s code of conduct.” Nair had been with the automaker for more than 30 years, first starting off as a Body and Assembly Operations launch engineer in 1987. Back in 2013, prior to his dismissal, he formed a secret team to develop a brand-new GT capable of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 50th anniversary of the automaker’s landmark 1966 win there. Now with Multimatic, Nair will still presumably have some involvement with the Ford GT road and race car programs.
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