Executive Director, Human Resources
Global Markets & Mobility, Ford Motor Company
Mary Anderson has 30 years of experience in the field of Human Resources and Organization Development. She has had the distinguished opportunity to work in three of the top companies in the world including General Electric, General Motors and Ford Motor Company. Mary has a B.A. in business and an M.A. in Human Resources & Labor Relations from Michigan State University.
She began her career at General Electric during the Jack Welch era, and over a ten year period worked for GE Medical, Aircraft Engines and Plastics. In addition to managing and executing the traditional HR functions such as recruitment, compensation planning, succession planning, employee development, labor relations and performance management, she also became certified in GE benchmark processes such as Workout, Change Acceleration (CAP), Six Sigma, Strategic Planning and Team Development.
Mary calls the Metro Detroit area home, and to broaden her sphere of experience and influence in the community, she transitioned to the Truck division of General Motors.
While at GM, Mary ran the $11 million GM Truck training organization and streamlined operations, cutting costs by $1.5 million. She launched the performance management process for GM Truck, which won the Chairman’s award and became a company best practice translated across all divisions globally.
After a successful stint with GM, Mary accepted an exciting offer to work at Ford Motor Company to lead the strategic planning process and performance management for the newly formed North American Operations. She has since held several HR positions including the lead negotiator with the UAW at the local and national levels, as well as assignments with Ford Credit and Product Development including HR oversight for more than 50k engineers, supply chain management leaders, and 9 VPs worldwide.
Mary’s current role as top HR leader for Global Markets and Mobility has provided her the opportunity to help shift Ford’s 115 year business model from traditional OEM to transportation juggernaut including setting up Argo AI – the Autonomous Vehicle subsidiary with a market cap of $4B, the formation of a new Human Centered Design organization, China Business Unit, International Markets organization, and the lead architect for running vehicle products and services as end-to-end businesses.
Mary has left a legacy at Ford by developing the first Global Organization Development practice and creating tools to improve individual, team, and organization effectiveness. She has mentored and taught countless HR professionals and business leaders how to accelerate teams to high performance, lead high-impact change efforts, create enduring strategic plans and deploy them across the business, and how to design elegant and efficient organizations to deliver results.
Mary also gives back to the community through her role on the Advisory board at MSU’s HR & Labor Relations master’s program as well as volunteering as a tutor for students at the Detroit Public Schools and Detroit Boxing Gym.
