Ford CFO Bob Shanks Departing by Year's End: Sources

The chief money man at the Blue Oval plans to hang up his Excel spreadsheets by the end of this year, according to sources in the know. He’s expected to stay on until a new top beancounter is broken in.

Why should you care? Because the Glass House is in the throes of a major product overhaul and under constant scrutiny from Wall Street, that’s why. Any shakeup in the corner offices is bound to have an effect on both activities, especially when recent earnings have been disappointing.

Earlier this year, Ford reported that its EBIT earnings in 2018 totalled about $7 billion. Net income was in the $3.7 billion range, down four stacks from the prior year. This represented a 4.4 percent operating margin, according to a leaked memo written by Jim Hackett. That’s about half of what Hackett considers “appropriate,” given statements made in the same memo.

Those familiar with the situation tell the Detroit Free Press that, despite working in lock-step, Shanks and Hackett have a very different speaking style, particularly when dealing with finance nerds. People in the know say that Shanks’ approach is very straightforward, answering questions as they are asked. Hackett, meanwhile, has been described by many as “cerebral” — a personality trait that doesn’t seem to fly well with those who pull the strings on Wall Street. Look to Ford’s current stock price, sitting below $9 a share as of this writing. With that in mind, HR would be wise to hire someone with a Shanks-like speaking style.

According to Freep, Shanks earned a base pay of $879,750 plus a cash bonus of $309,750 in 2017. His overall compensation package totaled $6.7 million, they go on to say, citing a recent company filing.

Back in 2018, it was the duty of Shanks to detail expected cost savings realized by binning all the brand’s cars, save for the Mustang. Having sharpened the cost-cutting knife and cleaved away wide swaths of existing product, Shanks said, “Everything will be on the table. We can make different investments, we can partner, we can exit products, markets — and we will do that,” at the Q1 report meeting last year.

Shanks, 66, has been with Ford since 1977. He’s been in charge in various corners of the operation, including stints as CFO of Mazda and the Premier Automotive Group when they were under the Ford umbrella.

[Image: Ford]