Ford CEO surprises everyone by retiring after just three years

Enlarge / Jim Farley, left, and Jim Hackett at a January 2019 Ford event. (credit: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Ford has changed CEOs for the third time in six years, the company announced on Tuesday. Current CEO Jim Hackett will step down in October and be succeeded by his handpicked deputy, Chief Operating Officer Jim Farley.

Hackett made some significant changes to try to make Ford more profitable. Most dramatically, Hackett cancelled most of Ford's car lineup in the US so the company can focus on its more profitable trucks and SUVs. Ford then announced plans for $11 billion in new investments in electric and hybrid vehicles-even as it laid off almost 20 percent of its European workforce.

"We made some significant decisions in the earliest days that were quite controversial," Hackett said on a Tuesday conference call. "Getting out of the sedan business was a difficult question."

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