Martin Leach (executive)

Martin Leach (1957 – 1 November 2016) was a British businessman and engineer and the President of NEXTEV, a startup technology company specialised in designing and developing high-performance electric vehicles.

Leach had an automotive career spanning more than 40 years. He has led car and truck organisations and OEMs in Europe, US and China. He was a qualified and certified engineer and was involved in more than 250 product programs.

During his career Leach was involved in operations and financial management, product creation and development, start ups, mergers and acquisitions and turnarounds as well as all parts of the Automotive Industry Value Chain. His career focus beyond product and business leadership was process quality management.

A fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, educated at Duke University and INSEAD he was awarded a Doctor of Science from the University of Hertfordshire in 2000.
Starting as a karting racer when he was 11 years old and turning professional at age 14, Leach had a successful career as a professional racer in Karts and Cars achieving numerous champion titles in Europe and participating in F1 test races.

Leach was a Ford Motor Company employee from 1979 to 2003. In 1992, he was appointed Director of Truck Sales and Marketing, Ford Europe. Two years later, in 1994 he was appointed Director Worldwide Light Trucks, Ford Global. During this period he took the European commercial vehicle division to the top of the sales tables and doubled the U.S. light-truck business.

Between 1996 and 1999 he was Director of Global R&D, Managing Director and Member of the Board of the Mazda Motor Company. He developed a new product philosophy and brand strategy that resulted in cars such as the Mazda 6 and the rotary-engined RX-8.

In 1999 he was appointed Corporate Officer of Ford Motor Company. In 2000 he became Vice President of product Development at Ford Europe. In 2002 he became the President of Ford Europe. During this period, he began implementing the so-called ’45 in 5’ strategy at Ford of Europe, a plan to launch forty-five fresh products between 2002 and 2007. The strategy resulted in the launch of the Ford Fusion, the Ford Streetka, and the Ford C-Max.

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