James Hackett (businessman)
| Jim Hackett | |
|---|---|
 |
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| President and CEO of Ford Motor Company | |
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Assumed office May 22, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Mark Fields |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 22, 1955 Columbus, Ohio, United States |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Spouse(s) | Kathy |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
| Education | University of Michigan (BA) |
James Patrick "Jim" Hackett is an American businessman who is the president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company.
Hackett is a 1977 graduate of the University of Michigan, where he played center on the football team. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance. He and his wife, Kathy, have two sons. They reside in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
From 1977 to 1981, Hackett held sales and management positions at Procter & Gamble in Detroit, Michigan.
Hackett spent thirty years with the Grand Rapids-based office furniture company, Steelcase. He joined Steelcase in 1981 holding a variety of sales and marketing positions. In 1994, Hackett was named CEO at age 39, making him the youngest leader in the history of the company. He held the position for nearly twenty years before retiring in 2014. During his tenure, the company eliminated nearly 12,000 employees as part of a downsizing and restructuring of the business. Hackett stayed on as vice chairman of the company from 2014 to 2015.
He was interim director of athletics at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, from Oct. 31, 2014, to March 11, 2016. Hackett led the hiring of former San Francisco 49ers's coach and fellow U-M alumnus Jim Harbaugh as the university's football coach. He donated $300,000 of his annual $600,000 salary as interim director to "Athletes Connected," a program that's designed to support the mental health of student-athletes.
In 2013, Hackett joined the Ford Motor Company Board of Directors. He served on its Sustainability and Innovation Committee and the Audit and the Nominating and Governance committees.
Hackett oversaw the formation of Ford Smart Mobility, a unit responsible for experimenting with car-sharing programs at Ford Motor Company, self-driving ventures and other programs aimed at helping the 114-year-old automaker better compete with Uber Technologies Inc., Alphabet Inc. and other tech giants looking to edge in on the auto industry.
On May 22, 2017, Jim Hackett succeeded Mark Fields as president and CEO of Ford Motor Company. He is also a member of the company's board of directors. The move came as Ford announced cuts to its global workforce amid efforts to address the company's declining share price and to improve profits. The company is targeting $3 billion in cost reduction and a nearly 10 percent reduction in the salaried workforce in Asia and North America this year to enhance earnings in 2018.
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