Jim Hackett is to be named Ford CEO today, replacing Mark Fields.
Fields’ departure is linked to investor dissatisfaction over falling profitability and a 40% decline to Ford’s share price over the past three years.
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Hackett, 62, moves from being chairman of Ford Smart Mobility LLC, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company formed to accelerate the company’s plans to design, build, grow and invest in emerging mobility services. He was named to the position March 10, 2016.
Before joining Ford Smart Mobility LLC, Hackett was a member of the Ford Motor Company Board of Directors starting in 2013. As a member of the Sustainability and Innovation committee, he was actively involved with the Ford senior leadership team in launching the company’s Ford Smart Mobility plan. He also served on the Audit and the Nominating and Governance committees.
Hackett was vice chairman of Steelcase, the global leader in the office furniture industry, from 2014 to 2015. He retired as CEO of Steelcase in February, 2014, after having spent 20 years leading the Grand Rapids-based office furniture company.
His biog on Ford’s media site says he is that as a “consumer-focused visionary in the office furniture industry, Hackett is credited with guiding Steelcase to becoming a global leader”. It add that “during his 30 years there, he helped transform the office furniture company from traditional manufacturer to industry innovator. Having spent his career focused on the evolving needs of consumers, Hackett is recognized for predicting that the office landscape would shift away from cubicles to an open space environment, giving employees the flexibility to work where they want.”
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By GlobalDataIt also says that Hackett is “well known for his creative management approach to business”. Through an equity investment by Steelcase in IDEO, an international consulting firm, Hackett “forged a unique business relationship with its CEO David Kelley to foster design innovation at the office furniture company”. At that time in 1996, IDEO specialized in the design of a number of consumer products, office equipment, medical instrumentation, furniture and computers including design of the first “mouse” for early Apple computers.
The Ford biog also says that “for real-time collaboration between IDEO offices in Palo Alto, California and Steelcase headquarters in Michigan, Hackett and Kelley were connected through a live audio video feed 24/7”. Their partnership helped move Steelcase into a leadership position in the design and approach to office furniture.
Hackett serves on the corporate boards of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in Milwaukee, Wisc., and Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition, he is a board member of the National Center for Arts and Technology at the University of Michigan. He also is a member of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Committee and the Life Sciences Institute Leadership Council, both at the University of Michigan. He is a past president of the Institute of Design Board of Overseers at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Hackett was interim director of athletics at the University of Michigan from October 31, 2014 to March 11, 2016 where he led the search for a permanent athletic director appointed in January 2016. He played center on the University of Michigan football team prior to graduating from the university in 1977.
