James Duncan Farley Jr. (born June 10, 1962) is an American businessman who is the CEO of

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

and a board member of

Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depressi ...

. His career in automobiles was inspired by his grandfather, who began work at

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

's River Rouge Plant in 1918.

Background

Farley was born to a banker father in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he spent his early years, before moving to

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...

. Before university, Farley attended Portsmouth Abbey School, a college preparatory school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and then later, the University of California. He is a cousin of the entertainers

Chris Farley Christopher Crosby Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American actor and comedian. Farley was known for his loud, energetic comedic style, and was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the ...

Kevin Farley Kevin Prindiville Farley (born June 8, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and director. Early life Farley was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Anne (née Crosby), a homemaker, and Thomas Farley, who owned an oil ...

, and John Farley.

Early career

Before joining Ford in November 2007, Farley was group vice president and general manager of

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...

, responsible for all sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction activities for

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

’s luxury auto brand. From May 2019 to February 2020, Farley served as president, New Business, Technology and Strategy. From June 2017 to May 2019, he served as Executive Vice President and president of Global Markets. From 2015 to 2017, he was CEO and Chairman of

Ford Europe Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany. History Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Britain, Ford Germany, and Irish Hen ...

Senior career

On August 4, 2020, Ford announced that Farley would succeed Jim Hackett as the CEO of Ford on October 1, 2020. At the same time, it was announced that Hackett would retire and become a special advisor. In July 2021, Farley was nominated to join the board of directors for

by the company's CEO

Jochen Zeitz Jochen Zeitz (born 6 April 1963) is the president, CEO and chairman of the board of Harley-Davidson. He served as the chairman and CEO of Puma for 18 years. He also served as board member of luxury goods company Kering, and chaired their Sustain ...

in an effort to revitalize the motorcycle maker and prepare it for an electric future.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farley, Jim 1962 births American chief executives in the automobile industry American manufacturing businesspeople Ford executives Georgetown University alumni Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni