The chief product officer has moved into the local CEO role and will oversee marketing along with sales, service and dealers.
Andrew Birkic is now Ford Australia and New Zealand CEO, moving up from chief product marketer for Ford Ranger and Everest and reporting to Ford International Markets Group (IMG) president Mark Ovenden.
Birkic has taken over the position from Kay Hart, who is moving to a European-based global role as enterprise product line manager for Ford Van and Bus.
In his new role, Birkic will assume national responsibility for national sales, marketing and service, as well as dealer relations and customer satisfaction. Ovenden praised Birkic’s passion for bringing vehicles to market that truly serve its customers along with his breadth of understanding of the local market.
“His global expertise will serve as a strong foundation for the continued progress of the business,” he said.
Birkic, who has spent 26 years with the car manufacturer, has been responsible for global pricing structures, future product positioning strategies and product development in Melbourne. Prior to his role as the Ranger and Everest chief, Birkic worked at Ford in Detroit as a global advanced consumer experience platforms manager, and spent two-and-a-half years in Shanghai as Ford's Asia-Pacific director for dealer development and consumer experience.
Birkic said after having spent the past two years working with the Ranger and Everest development team to grow the brands across more than 180 markets, he is looking forward “to working closely with team and dealers to serve customers".
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.
In our fifth and final episode, we delve into the relationship between retailer and supplier and how it drives and influences launch marketing strategies and success. To do that, we’re joined by Campbell Davies, group general manager of Associated Retailers Limited, and Kristin Viccars, marketing director A/NZ, Apex Tool Group. Also featured are Five by Five Global managing director, Matt Lawton, and CMO’s Nadia Cameron.
OK, so you’re probably thinking: “Here comes another article to badger me about living in my bubble.” And also, “I bet this bubble-bashing piece will go on to explain how I can achieve better results through some heady dose of new life experiences, new routines and annoyingly different opinions on social media.”
Every day, there are new predictions and studies on the future of work, the state of the economy and the unfolding global pandemic. All of which creates uncertainty and heightens the imperative of effective leadership.
I've worked in brand and marketing for more than 20 years. But there’s one area where I’ve found myself going around in circles and I must admit I'm becoming increasingly confused.
Great read. I agree that it should be a perfect balance between interacting with your customers and knowing your brand. As a business, yo...
Caroline Scott
7 ways CMOs can improve their customer engagement game
Very true. Team development helps improve collaboration among the team members. I was able to improve my team's collaboration skills by t...
Quent Sinder
Why empowering others can help make you a great leader
CRM is a very good software that can help you succeed in your business. In my company, this system has allowed me to improve customer rel...
Anna Janicka
Sensis rebrands to Thryv and brings business software to Australian SMBs
AI Leasing Assistants have finally arrived for the multifamily industry. With so many to choose from it can be hard to figure out which i...
Alice Labs Pte. Ltd.
CMO's top 8 martech stories for the week - 6 May 2021
Nowadays, when everything is being done online, it is good to know that someone is trying to make an improvement. As a company, you are o...
Marcus
10 lessons Telstra has learnt through its T22 transformation