Ford ’s U.S. marketing sales and service chief, Cisco Codina, has announced his retirement, effective November 1. Codina, a 30 year veteran of Ford, said his retirement had been long planned. “While it’s always difficult to leave during challenging times, I felt very strongly that we had a solid business plan,” said Codina, group vice president of North American marketing, sales and service. “We’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas.”
Before becoming the sales and service chief, Codina headed Ford’s customer service division and led Ford of Argentina.
Mark Fields, Ford ’s president of the Americas, will take over Codina’s position in the interim while Ford CEO Alan Mullaly searches for a replacement.
Ford also announced that Asia Pacific and Africa chief John Parker will become an executive vice president and Mike Bannister, CEO of Ford Credit, was named an executive vice president.
The executive shift at Ford follows on the heels of Chrysler naming a number of new execs — including a couple from Toyota — in an effort to try and turn around the Detroit automaker.
