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News of  September 19, 2001

FORD Strengthens North American Product Development Operations

DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor Company announced changes that will strengthen its North American product development organization and increase the focus on the customer. These changes are effective Oct. 1.

“By combining the truck and car product development teams, we will have one common process for all products and increase focus on the customer,” Scheele said. “In an extremely competitive marketplace we need to be able to move quickly and utilize the talents of our people in all areas of the business. Our goal is to build the best cars and trucks in the industry.”

Theodore is responsible for product development for all Ford brand products in North America. Reporting to Theodore will be Tom Baughman, executive director of the Tough Trucks group, Dee Kapur, executive director of the Outfitters (SUV's) group and Mike Zevalkink, executive director of the Ford car group. In addition, Al Ver, vice president, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, will report to Theodore as well as to Jim Padilla, group vice president Manufacturing. This will allow the manufacturing team to work more closely with the product development team to optimize the relationship between the development and manufacturing of new products.

Referring to Bedi, Scheele said: "Throughout his career, Gurminder has been a driving force for the Ford team and helped build a solid foundation for the truck operations. His strong character, drive, enthusiasm and leadership will be missed."

Bedi has been vice president of the truck product development group since January, 1998. Under Bedi's leadership, Ford set the pace for trucks and SUV's in the industry. The quick success of the new 2001 Ford Escape small sport utility gave Ford a market leader in every truck and SUV segment. Additionally, Bedi was instrumental in delivering on Ford's series of "Cleaner, Safer, Sooner" pledges – making all pickups and SUV's Low Emission Vehicles ahead of any regulatory requirement, introducing leading safety technology in the 2002 Ford Explorer, and committing to introduce a hybrid-electric Escape in 2003 and to improve the fuel economy of Ford's SUV fleet by 25 percent by 2005.

Bedi was President of Ford Argentina and Brazil Operations from December, 1994 to September, 1996. Before that, he was Managing Director of Autolatina, the Ford/Volkswagen joint venture in South America.

Theodore had been vice president, car product development since March 1, 1999. In that role, he worked to re-energize the Ford car lineup with the introduction of the legendary Thunderbird. In addition, Theodore oversaw ongoing product development of the Ford Taurus, Crown Victoria, Windstar, Focus and Mustang. Theodore was part of the team that recently reorganized Ford's car and truck product development operations into teams or "clusters" that share common components, technologies and engineering resources. The system is designed to improve the speed and efficiency of the development process and deliver products that delight customers.

(Sept. 6, 2001)

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