Two top executives to retire at Ford

Detroit: Two of the architects behind Ford's remarkable turnaround are retiring, and their departures have intensified the guessing game over who will become the next CEO.

For now, Chief Executive Alan Mulally is not going anywhere. The energetic, 66-year-old Kansan is considered a hero for bringing the company back from financial disaster. He insisted on Thursday that he'll continue to lead Ford.

But the retirements of two top lieutenants — Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth and Product Development Chief Derrick Kuzak — on April 1 remove two of the five inside contenders for the CEO's job. Their departures have renewed water cooler talk about who takes over.

Both men helped turn the company around after it borrowed billions in 2006 to stay in business. Kuzak, 60, got Ford to shift from being primarily a truck company to making more cars. Booth, 63, led the company's financial operations through the banking crisis.

On Thursday, Mulally named their replacements and promised that Ford's success will continue. "Nothing's changing about the way we operate," said Mulally, whose company last month reported its third straight annual profit.

Outsider's chance

Company insiders say the leading candidates to succeed Mulally are now Americas President Mark Fields, Asia Pacific and Africa President Joe Hinrichs and Ford of Europe CEO Stephen Odell. There's a slim chance Ford would look outside, but Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr, whose family controls the company, has repeatedly pointed to a strong bench.

President and Controller Bob Shanks, 59, will become CFO. Vice-President of Engineering and Product Development Raj Nair, 47, will replace Kuzak. Mulally said the promotions were part of the company's succession plan for every top management position, including his own.

At least one of the appointments seemed to point to Fields as the next CEO. Shanks is a close ally of Fields. He has worked with him since the early 2000s at Mazda, which Ford once ran, and at Ford's European division. When Fields became president of the Americas in 2005, Shanks became the region's controller. He also worked on the restructuring plans that eventually saved the company. Investors shouldn't be concerned about the retirements or the fact that Mulally hasn't announced when he'll leave, said James Schrager, a professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.