Ford executive to step down

One of Ford Motor Company’s top executives Richard Parry-Jones (pictured), the man responsible for the Mondeo and Focus models, is retiring after more than 30 years with the US car giant. He will step down as vice-president and chief technical officer at the end of the year.

Parry-Jones, who was named “Man of the Year” by Autocar magazine in 1994, has specialised in the development of environmental technologies in recent years. His responsibilities will be assumed by group vice-president of global product development Derrick Kuzak and members of the global product development team. Gerhard Schmidt, vice-president of research and advanced engineering, will assume the role of chief technical officer in addition to his present responsibilities.

Parry-Jones has worked on all of Ford’s brands during his time at the company and the company’s group chief executive Alan Mulally says: “Richard’s feel for the customer and technical expertise has helped improve all of our brands, and his drive and determination have been a great inspiration to our engineers as we have accelerated the development of our new products that people really want and value.”