Staff handling government, legal and public affairs will remain in Beijing as part of the transition, which the world's second-largest car maker expects to complete by October. The Shanghai office will handle Maverick, possibly the Lincoln at year-end and other import marques.
The joint-venture Chang' An Ford brands - Mondeo and Fiesta - will remain in Chongqing.
Dal Jones, vice-president for marketing and sales, and marketing director Tim Leckey are the most senior executives who will be moving to the business hub.
Industry observers say they are not surprised by the move and believe it was triggered by the shortage of marketing talent in Beijing. In an earlier interview, J. Walter Thompson's Beijing-based managing director Alec Cheung had talked about the problems of finding good creatives with auto experience in Beijing (Media, April 22).
Ford's agencies JWT and MindShare will also relocate their teams, with JWT ramping up the head count on the account. The agency has hired Kelvin Koh, the former national creative director at local shop Megacom, as group creative director for Ford. Koh joins on September 16.
JWT's Northeast Asia creative chief Lo Sheung Yan said the agency was looking to hire another four creative talents for Ford, including two art directors.
"We hired Kelvin because of his very real experience in China, where he has spent the last seven years, and in the auto business, with his work on Rover and Citroen."
On the account side, Danielle Godbier, who joined JWT as director on Ford early this year, will also move, along with her counterpart at MindShare, Alex Reynolds, who arrived to handle the business from the UK in early 2004.
Although Ford is on course to hit its 65,000 unit target, the car maker remains a small player in China as a result of its late start.