Ford Motor Company is preparing for a CFO transition. The automotive giant (no. 19 on the Fortune 500) announced on Friday that Sherry House, who most recently was CFO at electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors, is joining Ford as vice president of finance, on June 3. House will succeed current CFO John Lawler in early 2025. She will be the first woman to become CFO of Ford Motor, a spokesperson confirmed.
In joining Ford, House is returning to Michigan, her home state. She previously served as CFO at Lucid Motors from May 2021 until this past December. During her tenure, Lucid went public in July 2021, started producing and delivering its luxury EVs, and opened manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
House brings an “important leadership dimension to Ford as we urgently build a profitable EV business, generate new and recurring revenue streams, and create a more dynamic and resilient company,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement.
Before joining Lucid, House held several senior leadership positions at the autonomous-driving technology company, Waymo. She also previously served two tenures at General Motors, first in product engineering, then corporate strategy, accounting, venture capital, and business planning and analysis.
At Ford, House looks forward to “applying the breadth of my experience,” she said in a statement.
Outgoing CFO Lawler was promoted to the role of vice chair, a position in which he will lead the company’s long-term strategy. He will begin that role on June 3, in addition to serving as CFO until next year. Lawler is one of the architects of the Ford+ plan, a customer-focused plan to grow and create value.
“John is an outstanding strategic business leader and can leverage his talent and global experience to help Ford compete and win in this fast-changing and extremely competitive environment,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement.
During his more than 30-year career at Ford, one of Lawler’s many leadership roles was VP of strategy, business, development, and global data and analytics and he also spent nearly four years as president of Ford China.
As vice chair, Lawler will exclusively be focusing on strategic and commercial imperatives for Ford, leveraging partnerships, and liaising with leaders around the globe, including in China, Southeast Asia and Europe, to advance industry-critical policy, according to the company.
Lawler’s new role comes at a time when the automotive industry is going through a “double transformation,” a Ford spokesperson told Fortune. With the digital transformation of the industry, the underlying technology of vehicles is virtually turning them into smartphones on wheels. And there’s also the transformation within the industry from traditional gas to hybrid and EV products.
“This is a great challenge with great possibilities, and I’m eager to get after it,” Lawler said in a statement.
The industrywide price war on electric autos has become a major concern for investors. And as electric vehicle sales in the U.S. are starting to slow, Ford said last month it would delay rolling out new electric pickup trucks and a new large electric SUV as it adds gas-electric hybrids to its model lineup.
