Ford Motor Co. confirmed Thursday that Mark Fields, its chief operating officer, will replace Alan Mulally as chief executive, effective July 1.
The Wall Street Journal had reported last month that Mr. Mulally would leave the company earlier than expected and as soon as July, after a more than seven-year run in which he oversaw a significant expansion of the U.S. auto maker.
Mr. Fields, who is 53 years old, is a Ford veteran who survived management turmoil in the years before Mr. Mulally's 2006 arrival from Boeing Co. Mr. Fields, the company's operating chief, has won praise along with Mr. Mulally for getting Ford's diverse operations to function as a single business with shared parts, models and goals.
Mr. Fields will also be named president and will join the company's board. Mr. Mulally said he won't retain his board position and isn't sure what he will do when he leaves the company.
Ford said the planned transition in July is about six months earlier than previously expected, following Mr. Mulally's recommendation to accelerate the timetable.
"We've had very few, maybe never, had a planned and smooth transition, all the way back to my great grandfather," Chairman Bill Ford said at an event announcing Mr. Mulally's departure.
"That's why this transition is so gratifying to me. Mark has been Alan's partner every step of the way. People are always asking, 'Gee, when Alan leaves, is the culture going to change back?' Mark has been an architect of that culture along with the management here," Mr. Ford said.
Mr. Mulally, 68, will leave Ford in a good position, with a booming business in China, record profit in North America and a European operation on the mend. Ford's board met Wednesday and approved Mr. Fields as the CEO. On April 25, Mr. Mulally said there had been no change in his plan to stay through the remainder of 2014.
Mr. Ford said the board looked at outside candidates at some point but quickly decided that Mr. Fields "was by all measures, not only the best candidate, but a fantastic candidate."
Mr. Fields is expected to step easily into his new role. He has been running the company's weekly business review—Mr. Mulally's signature creation—for more than a year. He also created his own Wednesday morning meeting with key executives to regularly receive updates on the company's product launch schedule.
Mr. Fields said there won't be a new chief operation officer named and he has no plans to change any management team positions.
Before becoming operating chief, Mr. Fields served as president of the Americas division. He previously guided the product-led transformation of Ford's European operations.
Among Mr. Fields's first challenges will be the budding political crisis in Russia, where the company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as currency devaluations in South America that are hurting profit. He also must manage the rollout of the company's 2015 aluminum F-150 pickup truck, which introduces new production techniques to Ford's most profitable vehicle.
Mr. Mulally, a longtime Boeing executive, was the first of a trio of outsiders including Dan Akerson at General Motors Co. and Sergio Marchionne at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV who took over Detroit's big auto makers in the last decade.
While GM and Chrysler accepted billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to finance their bankruptcy restructurings in 2009, Mr. Mulally and Ford financed a drastic overhaul with a $23.5 billion borrowing completed not long before the financial markets began to seize up because of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Ford had a net loss of $12.6 billion in 2006, the year Mr. Mulally took over. Ford in 2006 sold vehicles under six big-name brands—Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo—and owned British exotic sports car maker Aston Martin.
Mr. Mulally sold the European luxury brands, closed Mercury and sold nearl y all of Ford's stake in its longtime Japanese affiliate Mazda Motors Corp.
By 2012, Ford had just two brands—Ford and Lincoln—and reported net income of $5.7 billion.
