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04-22-04, 11:53 AM
Thursday April 22, 10:59 AM EDT
By Tom Brown

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F) revamped its senior management team on Thursday, naming Detroit native Jim Padilla, the current head of its operations in the Americas, as chief operating officer.
The shakeup, and effective demotion of Ford's outgoing British-born COO Nick Scheele, comes just one day after Ford said its first-quarter profit more than doubled due to cost cuts and a surprisingly strong gain in its automotive business.
The results beat those of crosstown rival General Motors Corp. (GM) for the first time in three years. And Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. appears to give Padilla, who also gets a new title as chairman of automotive operations, most of the credit for the change of fortune.
"Jim Padilla is all about results," Bill Ford said in a statement.
"That shows in what he's accomplished in the past couple of years. The company has made a swing of nearly $6 billion in profitability in the past two years, and much of that can be attributed to improved quality, greater customer loyalty and reduced costs in North America."
Ford shares rose 2.2 percent in morning trading, after a 10 percent rise on Wednesday.
The hard-charging Padilla, 57, has worked his way up from the factory floor during a 37-year career at Ford.
Scheele, 60, will stay on as president of Ford. But in his new more diminished role, after overseeing the wrenching restructuring program Ford launched in 2002, he will be responsible for global product creation and information technology.
Scholl's rapid rise through the Ford ranks followed his revival of the British Jaguar brand, which he pulled back from the brink of bankruptcy.
Ford also announced that David Thursfield, 58-year-old president of international operations and global purchasing, was retiring effective May 1. Thursfield will become a consultant to Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and the company, Ford said.
Padilla, Scheele and Thursfield have been fast-rising trio of stars at the second-largest U.S. automaker in recent years. But Padilla, who boasts a solid background in manufacturing, was alone in having extensive North American experience.
Just last year, Scheele denied reports of bad blood between him and Thursfield, in a memo that was leaked to a Detroit newspaper. But Detroit has long been awash with rumors about internal rivalries among Ford's top managers and efforts by family scion Bill Ford to settle his management team down.
Despite such problems, Ford posted its first full-year profit since 2000 last year. And first-quarter net earnings rose to $1.95 billion, or 94 cents a share, from $896 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier.
Ford's North American auto business saw pretax profit jump to $1.97 billion, up by $722 million from the year-ago quarter.
But Ford Europe, run by Thursfield, posted a pretax profit of just $5 million.
In Thursday's reshuffle, Ford also named Mark Fields as executive vice president, Ford of Europe and the luxury vehicle brands known as the Premier Automotive Group. Fields had been chairman and chief executive of Premier Automotive.
Lewis Booth will become chairman and chief executive officer of Ford of Europe, and will report to Fields.
Ford also named Greg Smith, the current head of its finance arm, executive vice president and president of the Americas region.
Ford shares rose 33 cents to $15.27 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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