Ford’s struggling Lincoln brand, which has seen sales fall by 65% over the last 25 years, will have a new boss from 1 September in a move new Ford CEO Mark Fields described as “making clear we are serious about Lincoln as a world-class luxury brand”.
Fileds, who became Ford CEO on 1 July, added that “product excellence and innovation are what will deliver growth and define our entire company going forward”.
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The new head of Lincoln is Kumar Galhotra, currently Ford’s vice president of engineering. He takes over from Jim Farley who had combined the dual role of Ford’s head of global marketing, sales and service with running Lincoln.
Farley joined Ford from Toyota seven years ago and was once tipped as former Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s successor. He and Fields have worked together closely and last year persuaded Mulally that Lincoln was worth saving.
It was Farley who recommended to the Ford board that Lincoln needed a dedicated manager who could focus on rebuilding the company’s model line-up.
Lincoln will begin selling in China later this year.
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