On February 24th, 2023, Ford China announced in Shanghai that Mr. Chen Anning, the current President and CEO of Ford China, decided to retire. Mr. Wu Shengbo, the current Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Ford China, will officially take over as the new President and CEO of Ford China on March 1st and report to Jim Farley, the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company.
After leaving his position at Ford China, Chen Anning will participate in projects related to enhancing the company’s global strategic competitiveness and business growth and will continue to report to Jim Farley. He is expected to retire officially on October 1st of this year.
Chen Anning joined Ford Motor Company again in 2018 as the President and CEO of Ford China. Before returning to Ford, he served as the CEO of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automobile Co., Ltd.
In recent years, with the changes in the Chinese automotive market, especially the rapid development of the electric vehicle market, a new competitive landscape has gradually formed. During this period, Ford China successfully promoted the localization of the Lincoln brand and launched multiple domestically produced Lincoln SUV models.
Mr. Wu Shengbo holds a bachelor’s degree in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University, a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a master’s degree in Information Management from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University.
Wu Shengbo joined Ford China in October 2022 as the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, responsible for engineering, production, manufacturing, quality, and procurement, and fully responsible for managing the Ford China Commercial Vehicle Division.
Before that, Wu Shengbo served as President of Whirlpool Corporation’s Asia Pacific region and a member of the Global Executive Committee, as well as holding senior management positions at multinational corporations such as Osram, Honeywell, and General Electric.
Jim Farley said that the key to the Ford+ plan is to comprehensively simplify the complexity of operations, improve cost competitiveness, and achieve business growth to create greater value. China is now the center of the global automotive electrification revolution and will continue to lead future development. Ford is deeply understanding and actively participating in the competition in the Chinese electric vehicle market.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.