People

Richard Parry Jones

Parry-Jones joined Ford as a trainee engineer in 1969 and after working in the Product Development Group went to the University of Salford in Manchester from where he graduated in1973 with a First Class Honours degree in mechanical engineering. He then moved up through Ford UK playing a leading role in the development of the Ford Escort before becoming manager of small car programmes in 1982. In 1985 he was named Executive Engineer of Ford's Technological Research in Europe. He then served for a time in the United States as Director of Vehicle Concepts Engineering in 1988 before taking charge of manufacturing as Ford Cologne in 1990. A year later he was named chief engineer for vehicle engineering before becoming Vice President of the small and medium car vehicle centre in Europe in 1994. At the start of 1998 he was named Group Vice President of Global Product Development and in 2001 became the Ford Motor Company's Chief Technical Officer. In April 2002 he was given the job of making a comprehensive study of Ford Motor Company's F1 activities and as a result reorganised the team in the winter of 2002. He remains the man in charge of all Ford's F1 activities.