No stranger: Mark Ovenden takes over from Peter Fleet as Ford’s International Markets Group president, which includes Australia and New Zealand.

FORD Motor Company has made a string of senior-management changes that impact on its Australian operations and involve senior executives who have either worked here or held a key oversight role.

Among them, Mark Ovenden, 54, has replaced Peter Fleet as International Markets Group (IMG) president, a huge part of Ford’s business that covers almost 100 markets including Australia, New Zealand, ASEAN, India, South Korea, Mexico, the Middle East and Africa.

IMG was established only late last year, with Mr Fleet placed at the helm and China scythed into a standalone division led by former Chery chief executive Anning Chen.

However, Mr Fleet, 51, has now announced his intention to retire from the company after three decades with the Blue Oval brand.

Much of that was served in the Asia-Pacific region, where he rose through the ranks to become president, leading all operations and partnerships.

This included overseeing the international rollout of the Australian-developed Ranger ute and the launch of the Chinese-market Territory SUV, a new model (unrelated to the previous locally built wagon) that was also put through durability testing Down Under.

Mr Ovenden is a 35-year company veteran and also no stranger to the Australian operations, having worked under Mr Fleet up until mid-2018 as head of marketing, sales and service for the Asia-Pacific region – a position that he took over from Mr Fleet in May 2017.

Over the past 10 months, Mr Ovenden has served as president of Ford Middle East and Africa, while roles earlier in his career included leading the company in Russia and Britain, and holding down global sales and marketing positions based in Dearborn and Cologne.

As IMG chief, Mr Ovenden will report to global markets president Jim Farley, and in announcing the move, Ford president and CEO Jim Hackett said: “We’re fortunate to have Mark Ovenden to lead the formation of this new group of high-potential markets. He understands how to operate in diverse markets with different needs and distributions channels.

“With the establishment of IMG, we have a unique opportunity to create a new business model with a diverse culture and an agile mindset to deliver profitable growth. This new group will be a lean, dynamic and networked team focused on leveraging both local customer insights and Ford’s global know-how.

Peter Fleet

“Globally, some of the highest growth markets in the next five years are located in this part of the world.”

The emerging markets are expected to account for one in three future vehicle sales and Ford says its growth in IMG will be “fuelled by its leading market positions in compact pick-ups and commercial vehicles as well as optimising the company’s import portfolio and maximising aftersales opportunities”.

So while Australia might not be fuelling growth with its vehicle sales, its product development operations – which recently suffered job cuts as part of Ford’s global restructuring – are still expected to be central to realising the company’s ambitions.

Among other senior management changes, Stuart Rowley, who was vice-president of finance for Ford Australia from 2000 to 2004 and most recently served as vice-president and COO of Ford North America, has now become Ford of Europe president.

Mr Rowley, 51, is charged with all operational leadership of the European division – including acceleration of its cost-cutting “transformation strategy” for the region – while his predecessor, Steven Armstrong, 54, moves to the newly created role of Ford of Europe chairman, overseeing “key transformation projects” and joint ventures in the region.

At Ford Motor Co headquarters in Dearborn, chief financial officer Bob Shanks, 66, has also announced his intention to retire at the end of the year and from June 1 will begin handing over to 20-year Amazon veteran and former Snap Inc CFO Tim Stone, 52.

Ford of Europe’s vice-president of joint ventures, alliances and commercial affairs Birgit Behrendt, 59, will also retire.

By Terry Martin