DEARBORN, MI: After an eight-month hiatus, Alan Hall has rejoined Ford Motor Company this week as its global communications manager for technology, research, and innovation.
Reporting to Ford’s global brand pillars communications manager Elena Cortesi, Hall succeeds Susannah Wesley, who has stepped into another position at the company as manager of enterprise storytelling. Wesley joined Ford in February from Edelman, where she was VP of digital.
Hall, who left his recent stint at the automaker in March after serving as global comms manager for Mustang, is tasked with leading communications and strategy development for Ford’s technology in the marketplace. He will also oversee Ford’s research and innovation team and highlight important trends in areas the company is looking at for the future.
"Ford has an extensive tech portfolio throughout its product line from cars and utilities and trucks, so I will be helping communicate those technologies," Hall explained, citing Sync, the company’s in-car connectivity system, as one example.
He added that preparing for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in January 2015 is his first priority.
Since leaving Ford this spring, Hall has served as senior manager of communications for NVIDIA’s automotive business.
Ken Brown will fill Hall's role on an interim basis while NVIDIA recruits externally for a successor, according to Bob Sherbin, the company's corporate comms VP. Sherbin delined to comment on Hall's departure.
As to why he decided to take a brief break from the company, Hall declined to comment beyond the fact that he "loves" Ford and it is "great to be back."
Hall joined Ford in 2008 as car communications manager, and then he was upped to technology communications manager. His most recent role followed, in which he led the comms strategy for Mustang’s 50th anniversary.
Earlier in his career, Hall was Audi’s product and technology comms manager. He also previously worked with Ford as communications manager of its special vehicle team while he was at the firm Campbell & Company, according to his LinkedIn page.
Hall’s appointment follows the May departure of Ford’s former global digital comms leader Scott Monty, who joined Shift Communications in the newly created role of EVP of strategy in July. Angie Kozleski, previously Ford’s global marketing, sales, and service communications manager, immediately assumed Monty’s responsibilities at the automaker with the new title of global marketing and digital communications manager.
At the beginning of this month, Ford’s former communications VP Jason Vines released the book What Did Jesus Drive? Crisis PR in Cars, Computers, and Christianity, which accused the automaker of tapping his phone in 2001 during the company’s Firestone tire crisis.
This story was updated on November 19 with more information on Hall's position at NVIDIA.
