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JOSEPH R. HINRICHS: BIOGRAPHY

Title: President and CEO, Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
Joined Ford: December 1, 2000

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Detroit, Mich., 2005-02-16 (WDB). ...Joseph R. Hinrichs is President and CEO of Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited, appointed to the position in January, 2005. He leads Ford of Canada’s extensive operations across the country, including a national headquarters, six regional offices, five vehicle assembly and engine manufacturing plants, two parts distribution centres, and affiliates including Ford Credit, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover and Hertz.

Ford employs approximately 14,000 people in Canada, while an additional 19,000 people are employed in the more than 470 Ford and Ford-Lincoln dealerships across the country. In 2004, revenues for Ford’s Canadian operations were $18.1 billion, making Ford of Canada one of the country’s largest privately held companies. Since 1990, Ford has invested more than $10 billion in its Canadian operations, its fourth-largest market worldwide.

Prior to joining Ford of Canada, Hinrichs was Director of Manufacturing, Vehicle Operations, Ford Motor Company, responsible for the manufacturing, quality, and launch of Ford Explorer, Ford Ranger, Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Ford Econoline, Ford Escape, Mercury Mountaineer, Mercury Mariner, Lincoln Aviator, and Mazda B-Series vehicles produced at six vehicle assembly plants (St. Louis, MO; Louisville, KY; Twin Cities, MN; Lorain, OH; Avon Lake, OH; and Edison, NJ).

He was also responsible for working with the Product Creation process to develop and launch new competitive vehicles within these product lines. Hinrichs also serves on the Executive Steering Committee for Six Sigma and the Senior Manufacturing Diversity Council for Ford. He was appointed to that position in July 2003.

Previously, Hinrichs was Executive Director, Material Planning and Logistics, Ford Motor Company from April 2002 to July 2003. In this capacity he was responsible for material planning, production control, scheduling, inventory management, logistics and total material flow at all of Ford’s manufacturing facilities worldwide.

In 2003, Hinrichs also was given responsibility to champion Ford’s plant productivity- improvement efforts in North America. In this role, Hinrichs’ charge was to harness, coordinate and leverage plant productivity initiatives across the value stream—including Vehicle Operations, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, Product Development, Material Planning and Logistics, Labour Affairs and Purchasing—providing a common focus and ensuring that the necessary processes and reporting systems were in place.

Hinrichs joined Ford in December 2000 as Plant Manager for the Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. Less than a year after accepting the leadership role at Van Dyke Transmission, Hinrichs and his team lead the plant to a 10 percent improvement in costs, a 27 percent reduction in inventory and increased production levels with 50 percent less overtime and 60 percent fewer defects. These improvements contributed to Van Dyke’s honour as one of two benchmark transmission plants named in the 2002 Harbour Report.

Prior to joining Ford, he served as a Partner and Senior Vice President for Ryan Enterprises Group, a manufacturing investment company in Chicago. Early in his career, Hinrichs spent 10 years at General Motors in various positions in engineering and manufacturing. This included a stint as Plant Manager for a GM facility in Fredericksburg, Va., where, at age 29, he became the youngest Plant Manager in GM’s recent history.

In his first year of running that plant, Hinrichs and his team implemented process efficiencies, increased production and improved budget performance to levels that kept the previously struggling plant open. In 1998, the Harvard Business School published a case study on his leadership during the turnaround.

Hinrichs was born in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 26, 1966. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering magna cum laude from the University of Dayton (Ohio) in 1989. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School in 1994 as a GM Fellow. Hinrichs is married with three children.