Senior Vice President of Technology, FordDirect, Dearborn
Annual Revenue: N/A  // Employees: 86

FordDirect, a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its dealer network, was formed in 2000 to provide Ford and Lincoln dealers with digital marketing services such as websites, lead management systems, and customer chat functions. “There were hundreds of servers,” says Fadi Aoude, senior vice president of technology for FordDirect. “The biggest challenge we had was consolidating all the digital marketing systems across Ford and our dealer network.” Aoude’s team has consolidated more than 40 applications, 3,300 dealer websites, and all lead management tools under a single platform, shrinking a disparate array of IT systems and vendors. “All of our lead generation across the Web and third parties now funnels through our lead processing system and the customer information gets delivered in real time to our dealers,” Aoude says. “My plans for the future include building a best-in-class technology team that can bring innovation, flexibility, and process to take FordDirect to the next level.” —Tom Beaman