Joseph Hinrichs
Joseph R. Hinrichs (born 1966) is the Executive Vice President and President of the Americas for Ford Motor Company. He has responsibility for all the Ford business in North America and South America. Hinrichs was appointed to this position in December, 2012 after spending three years leading Ford's business in Asia Pacific and Africa.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, he graduated as Valedictorian from Saint Wendelin High School, Fostoria, Ohio in 1985. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from University of Dayton in 1989. He then went on to earn a master's degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School in 1994 as a GM Fellow, while he was working for General Motors. Hinrichs was GM's youngest plant manager at the age of 29 when he was leading the GM Powertrain Plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1996. The turnaround of that plant is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.
Hinrichs left GM in the summer of 1998 to become a Partner and Senior Vice President of Ryan Enterprises Group, a private equity group based in Chicago, Illinois. Hinrichs served many roles during his two-plus years with REG, including Chairman of Silverton Ridge LLC and COO of Zollner Pistons.
Hinrichs returned to the auto industry when he joined Ford in late 2000, when he became manager of the Van Dyke transmission plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. In 2002, he was promoted to executive director of Ford Motor Company's Global Material Planning and Logistics organization, which controlled production control, scheduling, inventory management, logistics and total material flow at all of Ford’s manufacturing facilities worldwide. In 2003, he became the director of manufacturing in Ford's North American Vehicle Operations, where he was responsible for the quality, production, and launches of six of Ford's vehicle assembly plants. In 2005 Hinrichs joined Ford of Canada as President and CEO, where he ran all of Ford's businesses in Canada. On November 1, 2005, he became a Vice President of Ford Motor Company where he was responsible for overseeing the operations of 19 vehicle assembly plants.
In 2006 Hinrichs was named Vice President, North America Manufacturing for Ford. In that role he was responsible for all of Ford's manufacturing operations, manufacturing engineering, MP&L activities, Automotive Components Holding company, and the Ford Production System for Ford in North America. In 2007 Hinrichs was promoted to Group Vice President, Global Manufacturing for Ford, reporting to Ford President and CEO, Alan Mulally. In 2008 Hinrichs added the responsibility for all of Ford's labor relations worldwide and attained the title of Group Vice President, Global Manufacturing and Labor Affairs.
In 2009 Hinrichs was named as Group Vice President and President, Asia Pacific and Africa. In this role Hinrichs was responsible for all the business activities in Asia, Australia, and Africa. He added the additional responsibilities as Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor (China) Ltd in 2010. Hinrichs led the team in Asia Pacific to develop Ford's aggressive growth plans in China, India, ASEAN, and throughout the region. Ford opened or started construction on nine new manufacturing plants and committed to launch 50 new vehicles in the region by 2015 under Hinrichs' leadership.
Hinrichs was on the board of directors of the US-China Business Council from 2010 - 2012. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the University of Dayton. Hinrichs has also been actively engaged in leading charity campaigns for organizations such as the March of Dimes, Boy Scouts, Focus HOPE, JDRF, and the Arthritis Foundation.
Hinrichs received the distinguished Wu Foundation Manufacturing Leadership Award in 2007. He was also named an Automotive News All Star in 2007. In 2010 Hinrichs was named an Honorary Investment Advisor by the government of Thailand.
Hinrichs is married with three children.