A former Groupe Renault executive, Franck Louis-Victor, will join Ford Motor Co. on July 1 as vice president of new businesses, the Dearborn automaker announced Monday.
His role is essential to developing and implementing a strategic plan for the Ford+ plan to create new value for customers and stakeholders, the company said in a news release. He will oversee the New Businesses Platform Team.
Louis-Victor, 48, will lead high-profile initiatives including the company’s “existing and emerging portfolio of capabilities in areas like autonomous vehicles and mobility services, as well as Ford’s incubator, Ford X,” Ford said.
He brings to the 118-year-old company more than two decades of experience in data and mobility startups, connected vehicles and new services within both long-established companies and enterprises that he founded and led, Ford said in its release.
“Most recently, Louis-Victor oversaw development and implementation of new business models and revenue streams for Renault, including an augmented multimedia system that brought together startups to design and develop new technology and services for vehicle platforms and artificial intelligence,” Ford said.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement that the company is accelerating development of “disruptive technologies and focusing on being a leader in areas that enhance always-on relationships with customers and give them increasing freedom of movement.”
He praised the new hire as a man who brings “great experience” that will help his new team and Ford overall “nurture new ideas through the start-up phase, with the best opportunities launched on their own or integrated into our business units.”
Scott Griffith, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles and Mobility Businesses, will report to Louis-Victor. Griffith had been serving as the interim lead of new business.
Louis-Victor and his team “will pinpoint areas where Ford can get and stay ahead of competitors in creating more rewarding customer experiences, with high-value moves in the automotive and mobility sectors,” Ford said in its news release. “That will include strategically disrupting how the company thinks and acts on behalf of those customers.”
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In addition to his role at Renault, Louis-Victor was alliance global director, Connected Vehicles Cloud and Services for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance for nearly three years from 2016, Ford noted in its announcement. He spent several years in mobility and automotive startups after beginning his career in information technology in France in 1998.
Louis-Victor has a master’s degree in physics from the University of Bordeaux in France and a bachelor’s degree in automotive design from the Franco Sbarro School of Automotive Design in Switzerland.
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Just over a year ago, Louis-Victor posted a series of an articles on auto industry transformation on LinkedIn. The first, dated March 9, said in part:
“The societal contribution of cars has gone from a vector of freedom and pleasure to a bulky and polluting object. In addition, the mode of access to a new vehicle (selling process through dealerships, budget, maintenance, complexity, quick depreciation, taxes) no longer corresponds to the way people consume: 24/7 access through online marketplace, instantaneousness, versatility, home delivery, low commitment. Buying, owning and driving a car became a pain, inside and around big cities. But it remains a mandatory companion that provides access to job, food, services, friends and family, anywhere else. And whatever dogmatic haters may say, cars are still a piece of art, sophisticated and emotional objects that result from the fantastic job and the boiling brains of millions of workers in the world.
In the same time, our industry is facing huge technical challenges that will impact its commercial performance: fall of diesel, uncertainty about electricity, autonomous driving. … What future and what axes of transformation can we envision? Should we transform parts of our business or totally reinvent the industry? New comers such as Tesla are enjoying niche success, but are these new schemes scalable? Is the Large-series Model 3 applicable to global market volumes of almost hundred million of cars, that only big OEMs (automakers) can address today?
“This is a strong and processed industry, that has faced many stakes, up and down phases, and has learned to go with technological, regulatory and social developments.
“But something has never changed in its belief, built on foundations of Fordism: salvation for OEM is in mass production and sales of new cars, industrial repetitive processes to secure margins, lower costs and affordable prices, standardized channels. Volume is one of the main (key performance indictors). KPIs …
“It looks like our industry should have a look to its global business model canvas to restart a new cycle. Switching to electricity, with consequences that are still uncertain, and looking down on Tony Stark’s Tesla may not be enough.
“The challenge is exciting and strategic for the survival of an essential part of the world economy. It offers great opportunities which deserve to be seized by the players who are ready to grow their wings. Put your seat backs in the upright position, fasten your seat belts, get ready for take off.”
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.