Hill will lead the company’s strategic drive to transform and modernise Ford’s business across the African continent. His responsibilities have been expanded to include Southern Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, as well as North Africa – which has its regional headquarters based in Casablanca, Morocco, and continues to be led by managing director, Achraf El Boustani.

“Globally, Ford is leveraging its resources to best serve our customers and treat them like family. As we work to deliver Ford+, our company strategy, we must continue to capitalise on our strengths, transform our automotive operations and deliver must-have products and services across all our markets,” says Dianne Craig, president, Ford International Markets Group.

“Africa plays an important role in IMG, and the new structure – with Neale Hill leading the Ford business for the African continent – will enhance our capabilities and allow us to work even closer with our dealer and distributor partners to achieve these objectives.”

Hill has a career spanning 30 years with Ford, and he was appointed MD of Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa in July 2018. Prior to this he served as director of Marketing Sales and Service for the local organisation from January 2016, following his return to his native South Africa where he started his Ford journey in 1991. Between 2006 and 2015 Hill fulfilled various sales, marketing and senior management roles in Thailand, China, New Zealand and Australia.

“I look forward to the new challenge as we develop our long-term growth strategy for Africa from within the African continent,” he says. “This will include working in partnership with our distributors in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa to deliver a more cohesive overarching strategy for the continent as a whole, offering truly competitive products, services and experiences for our customers.”

A key element of the growth plans for Africa will be based on the Ranger pickup, which is assembled in South Africa for export to more than one hundred left- and right-hand drive markets globally, including markets across Africa.

Ford recently announced the investment of R15.8 billion in its Silverton operations and supplier facilities in preparation for the launch of the next-generation Ranger, which will be produced for domestic sales and export markets, starting in 2022.