Europe has proven to be a tough market for automakers – including domestic ones – in recent years, and that includes Ford, which continues to deal with ever-changing regulations regarding fuel economy and emissions standards, not to mention heated competition from Chinese automakers. At the same time, the Ford Europe management team has been undergoing major changes both in terms of staffing and control of those operations, and now, the automaker has chosen to pare down the number of managers it has in that region, too.
According to the German publication Automobilewoche, Ford Europe is trimming down its management team in that country – reducing the number of managing directors from four to two. This means that Christian Weingärtner, Ford sales and marketing board member for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as production director Rene Wolf, will be losing their titles as managing directors in Germany, though both will remain with the company, regardless. In fact, the roles of both “remain unchanged in the company in their operational roles as executives,” according to Ford.
Meanwhile, managing director of Ford Werke GmbH – Dave Johnston, Vice President for Transformation and Partnerships, and Labor Director Marcus Wassenberg will remain in that capacity moving forward. These moves mean that Ford is giving up a chairman of the management board in Germany, and will no longer have a head of the company in that country, too.
This is just the latest of several similar moves after Ford downsized its management team in Europe from nine directors to four following the departure of Martin Sander, previously the general manager of Ford Model e Europe, who chose to head back to Volkswagen, where he worked before coming to The Blue Oval. Rather than replace Sander, Ford eliminated his position and the deputy role, leaving FoMoCo’s U.S.-based management team in charge of its European operations.
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