Ford China has announced that Anning Chen will retire later this year, and that Sam Wu will succeed him effective March 1st as president and CEO of the region. He will report to CEO Jim Farley, while Chen will assist with special projects until his retirement in October. Chen became CEO of Ford China in 2018.
“Anning has helped our business in China advance its capabilities in digital technology, lower costs, and improve relationships with our partners and others,” Farley said. “Importantly, he and his team have also protected our customers, people and dealers as COVID has disrupted society and commerce for the past three years.”
“It’s been a privilege to lead Ford in China and I’m proud of our progress in transforming the business,” Chen said. “It’s an ideal time for Sam to take leadership of the great things that our people are doing for customers and other stakeholders.”
Wu first joined The Blue Oval in October 2022, and is in charge of the automaker’s engineering, production, quality, and purchasing functions, in addition to running the region commercial vehicle division. Prior to Ford, he was president and CEO of Whirlpool Asia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in thermal energy engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing and has two master’s degrees. He hold a master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master’s in information management from the Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University.
Wu will be tasked with implementing the automaker’s Ford+ plan in the region, which is primarily focused on the EV and connected services pivot. Currently, Ford China is focusing on crossovers, as evidenced by the recently revealed Ford Edge L, which follows a number of domestic and import utility vehicles that have been introduced over the last several years.
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Comments
Is it just my imagination, or does Ford turn over its senior management often and frequently? Lack of continuity suggests a lot of these positions are ‘figure head’ roles.
Figurehead, or, they get in, see what an irretrievable mess things are, and go on to better things.
When is Farty being replaced? Can we recall him since he is the king of recalls
LoL look how another of the new bad faith K-street handles is pushing a theme that is not even part of the story here.
You mean that communist country that’s fighting against us and undermining us at every turn? Soon to be physically in either Ukraine or Taiwan. At what point does making a buck screw us beyond repair?
LoL Ford is hardly making a buck in China, it’s losing money there.
China is the most competitive market in the world, one that will soon be shipping cars to the West, and Ford uses the competitive pressure there to inform its restructuring efforts elsewhere.