Ford’s chief technology officer Ken Washington moves to Amazon

Ford just lost one of its executives, and this was announced on Thursday, June 24. It was revealed that the company’s chief technology officer is leaving to take on a role in the e-commerce giant Amazon.

As per CNBC, Ford Motor Company confirmed that its CTO, Ken Washington, is leaving on July 16. It was shared that the executive is moving to Amazon, where he will be the vice president of software engineering in Sunnyvale, California. This information was said to have been divulged to the automaker’s employees through a memo that was posted on the firm’s board.

What Ken Washington's departure means for Ford

It was said that the CTO’s exit from the company is a big loss, especially now that Ford is spending billions to invest in electric vehicles and other ventures. He has done a lot to accelerate Ford’s growth, and now he will be sharing his talent with another company.

Now, as Ken Washington is set to leave in less than a month, it was reported that Jim Buczkowski will temporarily replace him and head Ford's research and advanced engineering team. He will be in the position until Washington’s successor is found.

It was noted that a battle for talent between auto and tech companies seems to be happening these days. As proof, in this year alone, General Motors’s CFO Dhivya Suryadevara was poached by Stripe, a digital payments company while last year, Ford lost two executives in its marketing division to Facebook and Google.

What’s more, General Motor’s Alicia Boler Davis also left her job in the company as executive vice president of global manufacturing to join Amazon, where she took the position as its new vice president of global customer fulfillment.

Ford announced Ken Washington’s resignation

Ken Washington’s move to Amazon was said to be surprising because Amazon never put up news releases for new hires. It was said that it has always been discreet when it comes to recruitment for key executives.

In any case, Ford Motor made a formal announcement for Washington’s departure. With the memo, the company also listed his accomplishments while still with them.

"Ken and Ford announced his plans to employees on Monday," Detroit Free Press quoted T.R. Reid, Ford’s spokesman, as saying. "This interim transition is well planned. Ken will be taking a role as vice president of software engineering at Amazon in Sunnyvale, California."