Ford’s Indian operations are about to get a new President. Michael Boneham, the current Ford India President and Managing Director, will retire as of 31 December 2012 after 27 years with Ford. He began in career at Ford Australia in the Human Resource department, later going on to hold manufacturing and general management roles across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific and Africa region. In India, he began as the Executive Director of Manufacturing for Ford’s Chennai facility.
His role will be taken over by Joginder Singh, who will be based at the Indian division’s corporate office Delhi. Singh will report directly to Joe Hinrichs, President of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa.
Singh joined Ford in 1980. Since October 2008, he has served as President and Managing Director of Ford Business Services Center, responsible for Ford’s Global Business Services operations, headquartered in Chennai. This role will pass to David Dubensky in December.
“Michael’s contributions to our business in Asia has been significant, specifically his leadership of the India market. Building the foundation blocks of Ford’s transition to a mass player, leading the launch of the game-changing Ford Figo and his role in securing the US$1bn investment for our second new integrated manufacturing facility at Sanand helped us significantly transform our operations in India,” said Hinrichs.
The Asia Pacific and Africa (APA) region has become increasingly important for Ford over the past few years, with the OEM increasing its overall market share in the region by 0.3 percentage points in 2011 compared to 2010. For Ford, the APA classification covers 11 markets – Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Africa. Ford expects 60–70% of its growth in the next 10 years to come from the APA region, and is currently expanding its dealer network and production capacity. In India, it is building two new plants as part of a larger aim of boosting APA production capacity to 3 million units a year by mid-decade.
