Auto analyst John Casesa to help accelerate ‘One Ford’ global strategy

Ford Motor Company has hired long-time auto analyst and investment banker John Casesa as group vice president, Global Strategy, as part of the company’s commitment to accelerate its One Ford Plan, deliver product excellence and drive innovation.

Reporting to Ford president and CEO Mark Fields, Casesa, 52, will be the senior-most leader and corporate officer overseeing global strategy and business development. The appointment is effective March 1, 2015.

Casesa will work with the company’s business unit and skill team leaders to enhance existing business strategies and to identify and evaluate new opportunities leading to profitable growth. His work will be integrated into Ford’s current process for driving results, which includes constantly understanding the changing environment and continuously improving its plans.

“Ford is a growth company in a dramatically growing global industry. It is more important than ever that we operate with a focus on delivering today’s business and an equal focus on anticipating and meeting the needs of customers five, 10 and 15 years down the road,” said Fields. “John knows business and the auto industry inside and out. His deep experience and relationships will help guide and shape our global strategies – particularly as we challenge today’s business model and push to innovate to make us even stronger tomorrow.”

Casesa will lead the company’s strategic planning globally. This includes helping to steer the company’s investments in new products, technologies and business models supporting a focus on innovation and Ford Smart Mobility.

Before joining Ford, Casesa was senior managing director of Guggenheim Partners, where he led the firm’s automotive investment banking activities. In this role since 2010, he advised many of the auto industry’s leading companies and investors on strategic transactions.

Prior to Guggenheim, he spent nearly 20 years as a leading automotive analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Schroders PLC. He also served as a product planning analyst at General Motors and was a co-owner of domestic and import auto dealerships in the U.S. northeast region.

His thought-leading research during two decades changed the way investors understood many aspects of the auto industry. In 1991, for example, he created the ‘Car Wars’ report, which remains a benchmark for measuring automaker product competitiveness. In 2000, his ‘Who Makes the Car’ report presented a new framework for understanding suppliers. In 2005, with World Resources Institute he co-authored ‘Energy Security & Climate Change’ which foretold the clean car revolution.