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Wikipedia: Mark Fields (businessman)
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Biography
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Mark Fields (businessman) page on 13 September 2019, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Mark Fields is an American businessman and former chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company. Prior to his July 1, 2014, appointment, Fields served as the company's chief operating officer. Previously, as Ford's president of The Americas, Fields developed "The Way Forward" plan. He succeeded Alan Mulally as the company's president and CEO. Fields announced his retirement on May 22, 2017, with Jim Hackett succeeding him as president and CEO, Ford Motor Company.
Fields was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn to Gerald S. Fields, a purchasing manager, and Elinor Fields. Fields is of Romanian Jewish and Russian Jewish descent, and the Fields family's original name was Finkelman. Fields grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, where he attended Paramus High School, graduating in 1979. Fields holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Rutgers University and a master of business administration from Harvard Business School. He worked for IBM prior to earning his MBA. He is married to Jane Fields and has two children, Max and Zach.
Fields was recruited by Ford in 1989 and moved up the ranks. He ran Ford's Argentina operations at the age of 36. He then went to Japan to run marketing and sales for Mazda Motor Corporation (then owned by Ford) and was named president and CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation in 2000, at age 38. In 2002, Fields became chairman of the Premier Automotive Group, Ford's luxury unit, which at the time included Lincoln, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo Cars. He then was named executive vice president, Ford of Europe and Premier Automotive Group, where he led all activities for Ford's premium vehicle business group and for Ford brand vehicles manufactured and sold in European countries. In 2005, he returned to the United States to head the Americas division of the company. In this role, he developed the "Way Forward" plan, which was designed to make Ford's North American operations leaner and more centrally driven in areas such as product development, purchasing and engineering.
In December 2012, Ford appointed Fields its chief operating officer. He was named president and CEO of Ford effective July 1, 2014, succeeding Alan Mulally.