automotive

Ford Hires Ebay Exec As CMO

Ford Motor Co. is hiring a dedicated head of global marketing with a Silicon Valley background.

Suzy Deering will join Ford as global chief marketing officer on Jan. 4 following five years as worldwide and North America CMO at eBay. Deering will succeed Joy Falotico as Ford CMO. She reports to Kumar Galhotra, president, Ford Americas and International Markets Group. 

The company previously announced last month that Falotico will be dedicated solely to her role as president of the Lincoln Motor Co., Ford’s strategically important luxury vehicle brand.  She has been managing both areas for the past three years.

Deering is accomplished at using technology, data and analytics to anticipate customer needs and fulfill them with human-centered products and services, according to the automaker. 

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At Ford, she will be the “global leader for modernizing marketing, driving brand strategy and best practices, and developing marketing talent,” the company says.

Additionally, she will run all marketing operations in North America, which accounts for more than 70% of Ford’s automotive revenue, including customer intelligence and product and consumer marketing, per Ford. 

“We’re putting more decision-making in the hands of our people who are closest to customers,” Galhotra says in a release. “That makes marketing more important than ever and Suzy’s world-class background will be vital to modernizing our approach, dialing up our understanding of customer ambitions and redefining our brands to help us grow.”

Ford insiders say CEO Jim Farley was impressed with Deering’s digital savvy. His mandate was the new CMO be someone outside of the automative realm, sources say. 

“Technology will be a powerful part of Ford’s transformation and how we enhance and release the huge value of our iconic brands,” Deering says in a release.  “My team will be involved from end-to-end on behalf of customers:  better connecting with them, using data to foresee and deliver what they need, and earning and keeping their trust.”

At eBay, Deering helped revive the global ecommerce company’s brand and enable a sharp increase in revenue over the past two years.  Earlier, she was CEO of Moxie, a technology-led marketing agency, and spent 13 years at Verizon Wireless, the last two as executive director of media, engagements and integrations. 

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