Kay Hart named CEO Ford Australia

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"GRAEME Whickman, appointed to close Ford’s six decades old Australian manufacturing business, will officially leave the former car maker today, the company has announced.
In his place, Kay Hart Ford’s global distribution and digital experience manager for battery electric vehicles is named president and CEO, Ford of Australia and New Zealand. Hart joins Ford Australia from Team Edison, a division within Ford formed to speed up its electric vehicle development."
Ford said Hart, 40, would be based in Melbourne, and report to Peter Fleet, the group vice-president and president of Ford Asia Pacific.

“Kay is a proven leader, highly motivated by consumer insights and dealer relations,” Fleet said in a statement. “She has broad experience across the company and around the globe. With strong knowledge and relationships in Australia and New Zealand, Kay will be a wonderful addition to our leadership team and a strong advocate for our customers and dealers.”
Hart has had country responsibilities before. Between 2013-15, she was managing director for Ford Philippines.
She started her career with Ford at the car maker’s New Zealand-based marketing team in 1988.
Whickman, meanwhile, will officially leave Ford to “pursue a new opportunity”. https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/ind...hief-executive

[GO FURTHER]

Great to see more women breaking the glass ceiling in management positions.

[Crazy Dazz]

"digital experience manager" says it all

Nothing but a sales position now, mostly spinning boring junk.

Mustang is their only saving grace

[lra]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

Great to see more women breaking the glass ceiling in management positions.

Hmmm …….. yeah.
Mary Barra is doing a great job at GM, helping to screw Holden into a position of irrelevance.

[Nu66et]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

"digital experience manager" says it all

Nothing but a sales position now, mostly spinning boring junk.

Mustang is their only saving grace

Im more concerned with another suit in charge seemingly focused on electric cars.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by lra

Hmmm …….. yeah.
Mary Barra is doing a great job at GM, helping to screw Holden into a position of irrelevance.

I find it hilarious that a person called Barra is a boss at GM .. Imagine if she was the Australian Ford boss " Barra " AND ironic that as a Barra at GM she might have the job in front of her .

[simon varley]

face it - electric cars are coming. I think it's great that she's got that background and maybe we can lead the way for once instead of following.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

Great to see more women breaking the glass ceiling in management positions.

LoL, I hope that was sarcasm? You do realise there is a quota system which has become discriminatory against males!

In business I see it all the time wondering how people with zero practical ability make it to these high profile management positions...

If she is from marketing / communications rest assured it will be a fail.

[Aulpgute]

Started in 88 and she's 40? That made her 10 at the time

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

Great to see more women breaking the glass ceiling in management positions.

I have no problem with women achieving such lofty positions but only if it is on merit, not if it is because of some movement to balance a perceived gender imbalance.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

"digital experience manager" says it all

Nothing but a sales position now, mostly spinning boring junk.

Mustang is their only saving grace

When companies focus on sales rather than products/innovation:

[Sabantien]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

"digital experience manager" says it all

Nothing but a sales position now, mostly spinning boring junk.

Well what exactly else do you think Ford Australia is going to be doing other than selling cars?

Apparently when in charge in the Phillipines she expanded the range of vehicles available, and has also previously worked to improve the customer experience. Which, judging by most comments on this forum, is abysmal in this country, so maybe things will improve.


But I get why she's going to be hated.
She's not bringing back the AU Falcon. Everything she does will be ****.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by Sabantien

Well what exactly else do you think Ford Australia is going to be doing other than selling cars?

Apparently when in charge in the Phillipines she expanded the range of vehicles available, and has also previously worked to improve the customer experience. Which, judging by most comments on this forum, is abysmal in this country, so maybe things will improve.


But I get why she's going to be hated.
She's not bringing back the AU Falcon. Everything she does will be ****.

She will be paid a lot of money to try and resuscitate a corpse.

Ford (and Holden) may as well start a new business model without dealers without test drives, where people buy their new cars through a virtual reality hologram PlayStation environment linked to PayPal, tick boxes for options and nominate the nearest mechanic as their authorised service point. Oh wait I probably just pre-announced her vision!

[Nu66et]

Originally Posted by simon varley

face it - electric cars are coming. I think it's great that she's got that background and maybe we can lead the way for once instead of following.

I have no emotion for electric cars.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

"digital experience manager" says it all

Nothing but a sales position now, mostly spinning boring junk.

Mustang is their only saving grace

Nothing to do with it really. But good to jump unfounded conclusions.
Alan Mulally had an aerospace background, look what he did for Ford.

You'll find that executives don't necessarily have the background in the industry, whilst it is an advantage to have that you don't need it. You just need to be able to run a business.

Execs have their minions to do the ground work and provide all the information, so that the execs can continue to plan the long term strategy of the business. Like it or not all companies are around to make money (except non for profit)

Her experience will do a lot for Ford, you lot complained about their marketing, she may be able to leverage from that experience to expand into other areas.
Digital experience could also mean other things, i.e. car integration systems.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

So many 'glass half empty' people on this forum (and always appears to be the same protagonists).

Does anyone making negative comments about this appointment have any idea as to what this person's background and track record is apart from a couple of words written into a press release?

I worked in an aeronautical engineering role for many years, where the boss of the section was always an engineer. Seemed the right thing to do. Then they appointed a spares manager to the role, and I couldn't understand how they could do that.

Once she got into the role, however, she proved to be one of, if not the, best managers I'd ever had. Changed my outlook completely.

How about we come back to this thread in three or four years time and evaluate her effectiveness then?

[eb2fairmont]

Have to agree there.

[kevino]

Originally Posted by Aulpgute

Started in 88 and she's 40? That made her 10 at the time

She is a Kiwi so she is capable of remarkable achievements.


Good luck to Kay and hope she does a great job of running Ford ANZ.


Oh Kay if you are reading this can we have the 2019 model Focus with a manual gearbox option. Yes? Thanks Kay.

[OzJavelin]

Unfortunately I work in an industry where including the word "digital" with any management title usually means you are only loosely aligned with the real world.

Hopefully this assignment will prove me wrong.

[White SW]

Really? who cares? She is just a figure placed in charge of a nothing and getting accolades because of her gender. Ford, GM and Toyota manufacturing have gone the way of the dodo and have lost credence. The big three made all their $$$ out of Australia and scarpered blaming so many things that caused their demise.
Ford Australia = a nothing burger.

[Hemihunter]

Just another quota system job........

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by White SW

Really? who cares? She is just a figure placed in charge of a nothing and getting accolades because of her gender. Ford, GM and Toyota manufacturing have gone the way of the dodo and have lost credence. The big three made all their $$$ out of Australia and scarpered blaming so many things that caused their demise.
Ford Australia = a nothing burger.

Are you kidding me? They are still large businesses with signifciant amount of employees and customers to service.
In your narrow small minded world it may be insignificant but these people are in charge of organisations that are turning over hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ford and TMCA are working hard in their R&D areas and employ a significant amount of engineers that work on global projects.

But don't mind me, keep under that rock.

[PepeLePew]

I've been one of the many butt hurt by the death of local manufacture (though not in a job sense). But it doesn't stop me accepting the financials behind it, the way the world has changed, and appreciating that Ford are actually pushing out some pretty decent cars for the main. We just don't make them :(

Open mind, lets see where this is going. Ford still employ a pretty decent workforce here and take part in some significant global efforts. We have some brilliant talent still on offer with jobs. Electric or alternative is 'likely' the way things are going. I'm not hot for it, but everything changes. I won't lose sleep when i lose a one on one with some crappy electric soccer mom SUV...i'll just listen to the soundtrack out the window and block out the little bastards sitting in mums windows sticking their tongues out and laughing at the old dinosaur.

Good luck to Kay....and hey, wouldn't it be good if we could see her on here.

[au350hp]

Great move by Ford Australia. I hope she is well supported by her peers and everyone can get on with the job, rather than the usual fear mongering associated with a woman in a senior role.

[Mercury Bullet]

If she can get me a gt350 I will marry her.

Psst, some gt500's for the boys too.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by White SW

Really? who cares? She is just a figure placed in charge of a nothing and getting accolades because of her gender. Ford, GM and Toyota manufacturing have gone the way of the dodo and have lost credence. The big three made all their $$$ out of Australia and scarpered blaming so many things that caused their demise.
Ford Australia = a nothing burger.

Originally Posted by Hemihunter

Just another quota system job........

Guys, can we have a little bit of sensitivity please?

I'm not one at all for a person being appointed because of their gender, race, sexual orientation or anything else other than merit (hey, I work for a national energy provider that has quotas for females in executive positions, so I see enough of it). However, I have also seen a number of females achieve senior positions within organisations based purely on their ability to be able to achieve results, and you have no basis for knowing which one of these applies in this circumstance.

With attitudes like yours (and others on here) I can understand why some people get offended, because you are living up to the stereotypical male chauvinist.

If nothing else, just remember that Kay may actually be reading your posts and may take offence to the assumptions you guys have jumped to. You must remember that she is just human like the rest of us.

I'm calling you guys on this one and saying your comments are inappropriate. I hope others on here jump in and support me in that call.

Let Kay get into the position and settled and then we can judge her on exactly what you guys want: merit!

[DFB FGXR6]

At a customer level, I can only hope that she can help change the boys club mentality at a dealer level. This is something that, via perception or reality, has been a Ford dealer problem that has limited the success of the company in a very different world when compared to when the Falcon and its variants accounted for the majority of its sales.

From a management perspective, females have a natural ability to nurture and encourage a workforce but at the same time make the tough decisions with a calculated precision.

Her digital experience is also a massive plus in my opinion in this era short attention spans.

[CyberWasp]

It says she is highly motivated by customer insights, so lets generate a list to get her started.

I would start as Mercury Bullet has said to get the GT350 here pronto.

2nd is Ranger Raptor and its engine choice, versus perceived performance expectations.
Does not meet market expectation.

add some more....

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Nothing to do with it really. But good to jump unfounded conclusions.

Ford Australia nolonger manufactures cars, that's simply a fact.
Ergo, rather than managing a a multi-faceted organisation, it is now mostly about sales.
And as I said, with the exception of the Mustang, most of their offering are boring and unexceptional.
I'm not disrespecting the individual, just the role.

[cro142]

I hope Kay will be an improvement on the string of lacklustre (that's being nice) CEO's who have slept in the Chair since Geoff Polites' time.

Geoff was a standout success for Ford Australia, and the car-buying public. The turkeys in the Chair since probably actually did what the Ford parent company wanted, but this was of no benefit to the car buying public. Sad.