Back in 2018, The Blue Oval named Elena Ford – the great-granddaughter of company founder Henry Ford – as its new Chief Customer Experience Officer, where she was tasked with identifying and addressing customer pain points, or areas in which buyers feel underserved. Now, Ford is moving on to yet another new role as one a handful of leadership changes that were just announced by FoMoCo as it continues to shake up its ranks amid ever-changing times.
Ford will now take over as the automaker’s chief dealer engagement officer, where she will work the company’s roughly 10,000 dealers in an effort accelerate their transformation into a competitive differentiator. Ford will collaborate with those dealers in an effort to increase the consistency and efficiency of the company’s global dealer council’s governance, improve retail facilities, modernize training and development, become more diverse, further raise community engagement, and amplify best practices.
Lisa Materazzo, Ford Global Chief Marketing Officer
In addition to this move, Ford also announced that it has hired former Toyota marketing executive Lisa Materazzo to be its new global chief marketing officer, where she will lead advanced product planning and all marketing activities across Ford Blue, Ford Model e, and Ford Pro in addition to overseeing Ford Performance and Lincoln.
Finally, Ford also revealed that William Clay Ford III – son of Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford and a fifth-generation member of the founding Ford family – is joining the company as the new general manager of Ford Performance, where he will help build out that entity as a business and lifestyle brand, working closely with product development, marketing, dealers, merchandising, and other Ford teams.
William Clay Ford III, General Manager, Ford Performance
“Nothing matters more to me than Ford’s reputation and brand, and Ford Performance is in a unique position to grow the passion for our brand throughout the world,” Ford III said. “We have the best high-performance product lineup and the most exciting motorsport schedule that I have seen in my lifetime, with more to come. I’m excited by the opportunity to use Ford Performance to create new ways for our customers and fans to experience and love our brand, whether or not they own one of our vehicles.”
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Comments
If these new leaders push EVs then they will fail. The grassroots Nationwide anti EV movement is only growing stronger. We will not buy them and they can continue to lose money on EVs
Hopefully these leaders aren’t focusing on social issues. Americans want big trucks, not stupid electrics.
Welcome, Both!
As America moves more and more toward reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources and future-climate-friendly technology, we’ll appreciate your guidance and direction.
Sincerely and Gratefully;
The grassroots nationwide (but not nationalist!) movement for a better, cleaner future with Ford
Plains States Patriots
Guidance and direction? They were only handed these cupcakes positions because their great grandaddy s name is on the building.
I feel sorry for Ms. Elena Ford. I guess she got tired of spending her days listening to whiny, “underserved” customers then finally realizing that the company has absolutely no intention of doing anything about their plight. So now she’s in charge of transforming whiny dealers into “competitive differentiators”, whatever the heck that is. Sounds to me like Uncle Bill gave her a big job title, but actually is saying “Go sit in that corner over there and be quiet”.
Nice to know nepotism is not tolerated at Ford.
What a bunch of marketing BS! ” Mr. Ford dealer I’m calling to discuss you becoming a competitive differentiator! ” ” Wow he just hung up . ” Ford now thinks it’s Porsche.
I see she is also in charge of product planning for Lincoln. I guess we expect the same garbage the Lincoln has now. Bye! Trading Continental for a Cadillac. It would be nice if the kid would allow for a performance Lincoln LSC and LS again. I guess not.