DETROIT, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Ford Motor Co. head Jacques Nasser resigned Tuesday and was replaced in a senior management shakeup by Chairman William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr., the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, the company said.
"We need to be a company that the world can look to in doing things right," said Ford, who remains chairman of the board.
"I am both proud and determined to lead the company forward as we face some difficult challenges," Ford said. "There is nothing more important to me than the continued success of the Ford Motor Co. We want to have an even greater impact on the world in our next 100 years than we did in our last 100."
Nasser's ouster followed a power struggle that saw the 33-year company veteran relinquish part of his day-to-day duties to Bill Ford in July amid worsening losses, quality problems, the Ford Explorer-Firestone tire debacle and 5,000 white-collar layoffs.
A $692 million loss in the third-quarter, the second successive quarter of losses, prompted the board to cancel bonuses for top executives and suspend the quarterly dividend, displeasing the Ford family, which controls 40 percent of the voting stock.
Nasser, 53, officially took early retirement after the board of directors approved the management changes making the 44-year-old Ford the first family member to run the world's second-largest automaker since his late uncle, Henry Ford II, resigned in 1979.
Henry Ford II fired auto industry legend Lee Iacocca in 1978, saying he "just didn't like him." Iacocca, who oversaw development of the Ford Mustang, later saved the Chrysler Corp. from bankruptcy.
Ford board member, Carl Reichardt, 70, former chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo and Co., was named vice chairman. Nicholas Scheele, who was brought in from Ford's Jaguar operation in Britain to overhaul Ford North America, was named chief operating officer and president of Ford Automotive Operations, and Jim Padilla, vice president for manufacturing and quality, will head the North American group.
Scheele said the automaker would get back to basics in its core car building operations.
Bill Ford Jr., an ardent environmentalist who holds degrees from Princeton and MIT, became chairman Jan. 1, 1999 after nearly two decades working a wide range of jobs from product planning analyst to manufacturing, labor, sales, marketing and finance in the United States and Europe.
Nasser, born in Lebanon and raised in Australia, started working at Ford in 1968 and had been company president and CEO since Jan 1, 1999. Nasser, who earned $16 million last year including stock options, was known as a cost-cutter who planned to remake Ford's conservative culture through youth and e-commerce initiatives to reflect the diversity of Ford's customers.
His last appearance as CEO was Monday afternoon at a Detroit assembly plant where zero-emission electric-powered vehicles were to be built.
