2:04 pm, August 15, 2023
Ford has announced that managing director Lisa Brankin is to replace Tim Slatter as its new UK chair.
Brankin, who takes up her new post with immediate effect, will combine the role of chairing Ford’s UK operations with her current responsibilities as MD.
It means she will be responsible for overseeing Ford’s 6,000 strong UK workforce based largely at the Blue Oval’s Dunton, Dagenham and Halewood sites.
She will also be in charge of staff based in Northamptonshire, Stratford, Southampton and Cork.
Commenting on her new appointment, Brankin promised to press on with Ford ambitious electrification and agency model plans.
She said: ‘I look forward to building on Tim’s sterling efforts developing and promoting Ford’s UK talent and industrial footprint to attract further investment and growth momentum behind the all-electric future for the company, its employees and dealers.’
Brankin has been MD of the Ford of Britain & Ireland sales company since November 2020. Before she held a variety of UK director positions, including leading the passenger vehicle, sales and marketing areas, having joined Ford in 1990 as a graduate trainee.
Slatter, who was chairman from June 2021, has been promoted to a US-based position within Ford, becoming vice president of product programs.
Last year, he sat down with Car Dealer at Ford’s Halewood Plant, where he discussed the future of the brand’s dealer network.
Addressing the upcoming switch to agency, he told us: ‘First of all, we are very lucky to have the dealer network that we do have. It is one of the strengths of our business. Anything we do will respect that as a fantastic foundation.
‘The dealer network is critical to our business but we will need to find a way to have a direct relationship with our customers so we can give them that full relationship benefit in the longer term.’
You can read the full interview here.
