Kumar Galhotra emigrated from India to USA at 18 years old to study mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He knew there was just one company he wanted to work for "It was just Ford" he recalled. Shortly before receiving his bachelor of science degree, Galhotra printed a stack of resumes and hand-delivered them in hopes of landing a job with Blue Oval. Galhotra's ambition paid off with a 30-year career at Ford that now has him taking on high-stakes responsibilities as automaker's chief marketing officer.
Galhotra has orchestrated since 2014 at the once-moribund Lincoln Brand, he has overseen four consecutive years of sales growth at Lincoln, a century-old brand whose customer base had deteriorated to be beyond airport limos and the ederly. He became president of the branding Mark Field's first month as CEO in 2014 and immediatly began changing toward a formidable goal of tripling Lincoln's global sales to 300,000 by the end of this decade.
Galhotra, whose soft-spoken style mirrors the "quiet luxury" mantra Lincoln has adopted, has done stints for Ford all over the world.It launched the Ranger pickup in South Africa, running product planning for Mazda in Japan, and heading product development for the company's Asia Pacific and Africa region.
Before moving to Lincoln, Galhotra was Ford's vice president of engineering. He was chief engineer for Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute and Mercury Mariner in the early 2000s and was development of the curent global Range.
