Mark Fields is Executive Vice President, Ford Motor Company; President, The Americas and an executive of the
Ford Motor CompanyThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
. As head of the Americas division, Fields was tapped to develop Ford's "
The Way ForwardFord Motor Company's restructuring plan, made public in 2006, is known as The Way Forward.Ford is attempting to reduce fixed capital costs while maintaining a special focus on cars and car-based crossover vehicles. Over time, it hopes to make more of its product line profitable instead of relying...
" plan, an effort to repair the ailing automaker. He reports to
Alan MulallyAlan Roger Mulally is an American engineer and businessman. He is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ford Motor Company....
, the company's CEO.
Fields was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in
Paramus, New JerseyParamus is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 25,737. As of the Census Bureau's 2007 estimate, the population was 26,278...
, and holds an economics degree from
Rutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766 and is the eighth-oldest college in the United States...
. He worked for
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
prior to attaining an MBA at
Harvard Graduate School of BusinessHarvard Business School is a graduate business school in Boston, Massachusetts. The school offers a full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, as well as many . The School owns Harvard Business School Publishing, which publishes business books, online management tools for corporate learning, case...
.
Mark Fields is Executive Vice President, Ford Motor Company; President, The Americas and an executive of the
Ford Motor CompanyThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
. As head of the Americas division, Fields was tapped to develop Ford's "
The Way ForwardFord Motor Company's restructuring plan, made public in 2006, is known as The Way Forward.Ford is attempting to reduce fixed capital costs while maintaining a special focus on cars and car-based crossover vehicles. Over time, it hopes to make more of its product line profitable instead of relying...
" plan, an effort to repair the ailing automaker. He reports to
Alan MulallyAlan Roger Mulally is an American engineer and businessman. He is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ford Motor Company....
, the company's CEO.
Fields was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in
Paramus, New JerseyParamus is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 25,737. As of the Census Bureau's 2007 estimate, the population was 26,278...
, and holds an economics degree from
Rutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766 and is the eighth-oldest college in the United States...
. He worked for
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
prior to attaining an MBA at
Harvard Graduate School of BusinessHarvard Business School is a graduate business school in Boston, Massachusetts. The school offers a full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, as well as many . The School owns Harvard Business School Publishing, which publishes business books, online management tools for corporate learning, case...
. He was recruited by Ford in 1989 and moved up the ranks, becoming the youngest person (at 38) ever to run a major Japanese company when Ford placed him in charge of Mazda Motor Corporation in 1998. In 2002, Fields became chairman of the
Premier Automotive GroupThe Premier Automotive Group , is a group within the Ford Motor Company that oversees the business operations of Volvo Cars.Previously, PAG was responsible for Lincoln, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Mercury and Land Rover; Lincoln and Mercury were taken back into Ford direct control, and Aston Martin was...
, Ford's luxury unit which includes
Aston MartinAston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The company name is derived from the name of one of the company's founders, Lionel Martin, and from the Aston Hill speed hillclimb near Aston Clinton in BuckinghamshireFrom 1994 until 2007...
,
JaguarJaguar Cars Ltd., better known simply as Jaguar is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Coventry, England. It has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd...
,
Land RoverLand Rover is a 4x4, SUV and all-terrain vehicle manufacturer, based in Solihull, West Midlands, England, now operated as part of the Jaguar Land Rover business owned by Tata Motors of India....
and
Volvo CarsVolvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, and currently owned by Ford Motor Company....
. He returned to the United States to head the Americas division of the company in October 2005.
In a December 14, 2006, announcement made by Alan Mulally (Chief Executive of Ford Motor Company), Mark Fields, at 45, was named business unit chief of Ford Motor Company's Americas operations. This is an attempt to make the company leaner and more centrally driven in areas such as product development, purchasing and engineering. The announcement was published by
ReutersReuters Group Limited is a UK-based, Canadian-controlled news service and former financial market data provider that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. News reporting once accounted for less than 10% of the company's income. Its main focus was on supplying the...
on the same date.
Jet controversy
In November 2006, a series of reports by
WXYZ-TVWXYZ-TV, Channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station in Detroit. It is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company and is the media company's largest TV station. WXYZ-TV is among the highest-rated ABC stations in the United States. The station's operations and transmitter are located at Broadcast...
revealed that Fields was using company jets as part of his employment contract to commute to his home in Florida at a cost of $50,000 a week, while at the same time eliminating tens of thousands of jobs at the troubled automaker. The reports caused a firestorm of controversy among Ford employees and dealers, and received significant media attention. In January 2007, Fields announced he would instead fly home on a commercial carrier.