Leadership

Event Chair: Jim Baumbick

We are delighted to once again have Jim Baumbick as this year’s event chair. Jim is vice president, Industrial Platform, Operations and New Model Launch, Ford Blue, effective March 2, 2022. He reports to Kumar Galhotra, president, Ford Blue.

Previously, Jim Baumbick was vice president, Enterprise Product Line Management, Ford Motor Company, where he was responsible for global product strategy and planning as well as leading the global product line teams to deliver products customers really want and value and to drive end-to-end business results.

Prior to this, Baumbick served as executive director of Global Product Planning and Strategy. In this role, he led the development of the company’s flexible modular architecture approach, a key enabler for product development fitness. Baumbick also developed new capital allocation and cycle planning processes to prioritize winning businesses to support the company’s overall fitness efforts.

Baumbick joined Ford in 1993 as a Ford College Graduate. Since then, he has served in a variety of roles core to the product development process, including financial and profit analysis, engineering, product planning and program management, as well as operations. Specific roles included chief engineer of Unibody Products, engineering director for Asia Pacific & Africa, director of global product development quality and GPDS, the company’s product development system. In addition, Baumbick serves as the vehicle line and platform director for development of Ford’s front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive flexible architecture.

Baumbick’s leadership was recognized early in his career when he was named a recipient of the Automotive Hall of Fame’s Young Leadership and Excellence Award in 2003. The award, given since the 1980s, recognizes up-and-coming automotive professionals who demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities in their work. In 2021, he was again honored by the Automotive Hall of Fame with an Industry Influencer Award, recognizing individuals who are influencing and leading through their actions, innovations, and visible positions on issues pertinent to the automotive industry and its future.

Committee: