John C. May of Deere & Co. Named to Ford Board of Directors

The Ford Motor Company board of directors has seen a bit of reshuffling in recent months, and this week it is seeing another big change. The board has just been expanded to fifteen people with the election of John C. May, who will serve on the Finance, Compensation, Talent and Culture, and Nominating and Governance committees.

May has been chairman of Deere & Company since May 2020 and CEO of Deere & Company since Nov 2019. May has been instrumental in Deere’s recent efforts to revamp the agriculture and construction industries with increased connectivity and technology use. May is Deere’s tenth CEO and has been with the company since 1997. Outside of CEO, he has also held positions within Deere as president and COO, president of the Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, chief information officer, and president of Agricultural Solutions. He was also the managing director of Deere’s operations in China during a period of time where Deere’s Chinese operations were seeing major growth.

May’s previous experience in transforming Deere & Co. aligns well with Ford’s ambitious plans for revolutionizing both their own operations and the entire automotive industry. Ford had big goals that support will be needed to achieve, such as becoming fully carbon neutral by the year 2050 or having 40% of global sales consist of electric vehicles by 2030. May will be providing extremely valuable insight to the Ford board as the entire company develops, grows, and modernizes over the coming years.

“Our industry is in an exciting period of disruption and we’re changing Ford in significant ways that are good for all our customers and stakeholders, with advanced technology and digital connectivity at the center,” said Bill Ford, executive chair. “That’s what Deere is doing in its businesses, making John’s expertise invaluable to our board as the Ford management team executes the company’s strategy for growth and value creation.”