|
As a long-time rally fan dating back to his childhood in the Republic of Ireland, it is appropriate that Gerard Quinn should rise through the ranks of Ford Motor Company from a job on the production line in England to his current position as senior manager of Ford of Europe's motorsport programmes.
He has progressed a long way from the days when he attended his first rally in 1969 as an enthusiastic five-year-old and was an active member of his local Cork Motor Club in the 1980s.
After completing his studies at McEgan Vocational College in Macroom, Gerard joined Ford of Britain in May 1988 as a production line operator at Dagenham's assembly plant. Via a role as a parts control analyst, he moved into Ford of Europe's purchasing operations in 1992 as a production planning analyst – the first of several positions in the company's purchasing discipline.
A year later he was appointed as a buyer of C/D car interior systems for Europe and North America before taking on the post as buyer of noise, vibration and harshness systems for C/D cars in Europe in 1995. Three years later his buying role switched to Transit programmes before a further move into construction, utilities and building services in 2001.
In 2002 he was appointed programme manager for purchasing information and management systems, before taking up his first professional involvement with motorsport in 2005 as the purchasing manager responsible for all Ford's motorsport procurement activities in Europe.
He has been instrumental in managing the commercial and contractual aspects of Ford's involvement in WRC and Formula Ford and at the end of 2008 he successfully concluded contractual negotiations between Ford and M-Sport for the 2009 WRC season. He also had significant procurement involvement in Ford's performance vehicle programmes, most recently the new Ford Focus RS.
In June 2008 Gerard moved back to his native Ireland to take up a new position as Dealer Operations Manager at Henry Ford & Son Limited, with responsibility for dealer operations throughout the Republic of Ireland. He maintained strong links with Ford's European motorsport activities and took charge of its motorsport programmes in June 2009.
In this role he manages all Ford of Europe's motorsport activities, among them the company's primary discipline - the FIA World Rally Championship. He works alongside Malcolm Wilson, BP Ford Abu Dhabi team director and owner of M-Sport. Gerard is also responsible for a team of marketing professionals and product development engineers to further develop Ford's European motorsport strategy.
< Back to all Speakers
|
