Two senior Ford executives quit

Ahead of Friday's announcement of Ford Motor Co.'s "Accelerated Way Forward" plan, two senior Ford Motor Co. execs have quit. Anne Stevens, COO of the Americas and Dave Szczupak, head of manufacturing for the Americas have, in the company's words, "elected to retire." Stevens has been with Ford for 16 years, and in 2005 was appointed executive VP and COO for the Americas, where she played a key role in crafting the Way Forward plan. Szczupak was named group VP, Manufacturing for the Americas in 2005, which made him responsible for all assembly, stamping and powertrain operations and engineering, including manufacturing plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Neither executive will be replaced in the short term - all manufacturing execs will now report directly to Mark Fields, president of the Americas group.

[Source: Ford]