.

.November 24, 2004
.
This Week:

• Lexus GX 470 Gains Power and Adds New Sport Package for 2005

• All-New Competition Package For The 2005 BMW M3 Coupe

• Porsche Carrera GT Drives Off With Engineering Excellence Award

• Volkswagen Releases First Official Photos of All-New Jetta to Arrive Early Next Year

• Jaguar Ties At Number 1 In 2004 JD Power And Associates SSI Study

• Mercedes-Benz S-Class: the World's Best-selling Premium Automobile

• Toyota to Establish Technology Research and Training Centers in China

• Ford Names Robert J. Graziano To Lead The Ford Motor Company Of Southern Africa

• DuPont Will Build Automotive Paint Laboratory in Japan

• Acura Sets Yearly Sales Record

© 1998 - 2004 Copyright & 
Disclaimer
Automotive Intelligence,
www.autointell.com
All Rights Reserved .
For questions please contact
editor@autointell.net 

.
Ford Names Robert J. Graziano To Lead The Ford Motor Company Of Southern Africa

Robert Graziano Photo: Ford

Pretoria, South Africa - Ford Motor Company today announced that Robert J. Graziano has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director of Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa, effective December 1, 2004. Graziano will succeed Deborah S. Coleman who will be returning to the U.S. to take up a new assignment, which will be the subject of a future announcement.

Graziano comes to this new position from the U.S. where he was director, North American Product Strategy and Planning.

Graziano joined Ford in 1982 after graduating from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, with a bachelor's degree in marketing. He held a number of sales positions for Ford Division in the Midwest before joining the Controller's office in Dearborn. Graziano then moved to Lincoln Mercury Division to launch the Villager minivan before becoming general zone manager for Lincoln Mercury in 1992. He was then appointed Brand Development Manager for the Lincoln LS, and in 1998, he was named director, Strategic Marketing, Ford South American Operations, in Brazil. He returned to the U.S. in 2000 and was named Director, Product Marketing, for Ford Division in 2002. He was appointed to his most recent position in May 2003.

Graziano will lead an organization that employs more than 4,000. He will report to Peter Daniel, Ford vice president and chief operating officer, Asia Pacific & Africa.

Ford is one of Southern Africa's leading automotive companies and is the South African home of Ford, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover. With an average market share of 15 percent, Ford assembles about 50,000 units a year in the region.

A technologically advanced engine plant, situated in Port Elizabeth, machines components for the assembly plant in Silverton, produces nearly 1.8 million catalytic converter parts for export and assembles approximately 230,000 engines for local use and for export to India and Europe.

Coleman was named to lead Ford's South African operations in the fall of 2001. Under her leadership, retail sales volume grew by 19 per cent for the period January to October 2004 over the same period a year previously. The Ford brand, in particular, has grown by a substantial 61 per cent.

During 2003, the company announced that it had been chosen by Ford Motor Company as the manufacturing source for the new Ford Focus which will be exported to Australia and New Zealand, commencing during 2005.

(Nov. 18, 2004)