Ford follows GM's lead in picking insider as CEO

Ford Motor Co.’s decision to elevate Mark Fields to chief executive marks the second time since December that a U.S. automaker has tapped a company insider as its leader. The move leaves Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat SpA and Chrysler Group LLC, as the longest-tenured head of a Detroit automaker.

In December, the General Motors Co. board named a veteran of more than 30 years, Mary Barra, to become CEO. For almost five years, the Detroit automaker had been run by two CEOs who came from outside the auto industry: former AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre, who had been appointed to GM’s board by the U.S. Treasury Department, and then another Treasury appointee, Dan Akerson, a partner at private equity firm Carlyle Group.

The 2006 hiring of Alan Mulally, a long-time Boeing executive to run Ford, marked a change for the U.S. auto industry that usually tapped industry veterans who rose through the ranks.

David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, said Mulally “redefined the culture of Ford and got rid of the fiefdoms.” He predicted even after Mulally’s departure, the culture change would remain.

Coles said Mulally “came from a big, complex manufacturing company like Boeing” that had similar challenges.

He said Whitacre and Akerson didn’t have that kind of experience. “They were really very inexperienced in manufacturing,” Cole said. “Down the road, I think you could see another Mulally-type executive, but not an Akerson or Whitacre.”

When a majority stake in Chrysler LLC was sold by Daimer AG to Cerberus Capital Management LP, the New York-based private equity firm tapped former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli to run the company. When the Obama administration agreed to a new bailout of Chrysler in 2009, it forced a merger with Fiat SpA and gave control of Chrysler to the Italian automaker under Marchionne.

In January, Marchionne told reporters at the North American International Auto Show he planned to stay on for another three years. The CEO, a workaholic who has on occasion made three transatlantic flights in a single week, has discouraged speculation about when he will step down.

“Trying to second-guess when that is going to happen is a tremendous waste of time,” Marchionne told reporters in January, according to CNN. “Go buy a lottery ticket. You’ll have a lot more fun and the odds of you getting it right are greater.”