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Ford hires Wall Street analyst to head global strategy

Ford has hired auto industry veteran John Casesa, 52, as the company's group vice president of global strategy, effective March 1. His job is to oversee worldwide business development and have input on investments in future products and technologies. Casesa reports directly to Ford president and CEO Mark Fields. "John knows business and the auto industry inside and out. His deep experience and relationships will help guide and shape our global strategies – particularly as we challenge today's business model and push to innovate to make us even stronger tomorrow," Fields said in a statement. Casesa has spent much of his career in some facet of the automotive business, and one of his biggest contributions was as the original author of the Car Wars forecasting report in 1991. Since 2010, he has been senior managing director of Guggenheim Partners, responsible for the company's auto investments. Before that, he was an industry analyst for 20 years, including for Merrill Lynch. Casesa has also been a product planning analyst for General Motors. In addition to his understanding of the car-making business, he understands selling them, and was the co-owner of showrooms in the Northeast previously. FORD HIRES JOHN CASESA TO LEAD GLOBAL STRATEGY Auto analyst and investment banker John Casesa joins Ford as group vice president, Global Strategy Casesa will lead a team focused on enhancing existing business strategies and identifying and evaluating new opportunities for profitable growth DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 17, 2014 – Ford Motor Company today announces the hiring of long-time auto analyst and investment banker John Casesa as group vice president, Global Strategy as part of the company's commitment to accelerate its One Ford plan, deliver product excellence and drive innovation in every part of the business. Reporting to Ford President and CEO Mark Fields, Casesa, 52, will be the most senior leader and corporate officer overseeing global strategy and business development. The appointment is effective March 1, 2015. Casesa will work with the company's business unit and skill team leaders to enhance existing business strategies and to identify and evaluate new opportunities leading to profitable growth. His work will be integrated into Ford's current process for driving results, which includes constantly understanding the changing environment and continuously improving its plans. "Ford is a growth company in a dramatically growing global industry.

Ford celebrating 80 years of Aussie utes as it prepares to shutter Oz manufacturing

Ford is ending Australian production after 90 years in 2016, and with it may go perhaps the most iconic vehicles in its auto market - the ute. Car-based pickup trucks like the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino were always more of a curiosity than a true market force here, but in Australia, they have long proven hugely popular.
As the legend goes, Ford invented the niche after a farmer's wife had asked Ford Australia's managing director for a more utilitarian car. Her request was simple: "My husband and I can't afford a car and a truck but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday. Can you help?"
Ford's design team came up with a two-passenger, enclosed, steel coupe body with glass windows and a steel-paneled, wooden-frame load area in the rear. The sides of the bed were blended into the body to make it look more unified, and to keep costs down, the front end and interior were based on the Ford Model 40 five-window coupe. Power came from a V8 with shifting chores handled by a three-speed manual. Within a year, the new vehicle was ready, and production began in 1934. Lead designer Lewis Bandt christened it the coupe-utility.

Ex-GM VP LaNeve takes over Lincoln ad agency

Those of you that caught yesterday's op-ed about Lincoln will have heard already, but Mark LaNeve has taken the helm at Team Detroit. Once the North American vice president of sales, service and marketing for General Motors, LaNeve will now head up the agency that handles all of Ford advertising. LaNeve will also run the account for Lincoln. While at GM from 2001 to 2009, the exec oversaw ad campaigns like Cadillac's Breakthrough and sales initiatives like "Employee Pricing for Everyone."
He left in 2009 to join Allstate as chief marketing officer, oversaw the creation of the Mayhem ad spots and was moved into the role of VP of agency operations overseeing Allstate's 10,000 agents. He resigned from the insurer in February 2012 for personal reasons and joined Team Detroit in August 2012 as chief operating officer, in charge of satellite offices in New York and internationally. He replaces ex-CEO Cameron McNaughton, and will continue to hold the title of COO.
Lincoln is trying to get its 2013 back to rights after putting big dollar commercials for the 2013 MKZ on television then having production glitches preventing cars from getting to dealerships. With rumors of a relaunch in the works, it's no surprise LaNeve has been given the reins - and from here it looks like the brand is desperate for the kind of magic he's proved he can marshal. Perhaps he can start by calling a mulligan on the renaming exercise that gave us the hoary "Lincoln Motor Company" and go back to oh, say, "Lincoln." Then he can ask the product folks to get to work on the MKC concept...