During Mr. Fields’s three-year tenure — a period when Ford’s shares dropped 40 percent — he came under fire from investors<br />and Ford’s board for failing to expand the company’s core auto business and for lagging in developing the high-tech cars of the future.<br />At the annual meeting on May 11, Mr. Fields said Ford was capable of staying competitive in the current market for new<br />vehicles, while also “keeping one foot in the future” of an industry heading toward autonomous, battery-powered cars.<br />The change came less than two weeks after Mr. Fields was sharply criticized during the<br />company’s annual shareholders meeting for Ford’s deteriorating financial results.
