Ford Motor names Rajendra Rao as CEO of Ford Smart Mobility

Staff Writer | Dearborn, Mich., USA | Friday September 30, 2016 9:39AM ET

Ford Motor Company is announcing the appointment of Rajendra Rao as chief executive officer of Ford Smart Mobility LLC, Ford’s subsidiary.

Mr. Rao has created, built and transformed businesses for iGATE Capital, Brunswick Corporation and, most recently, 3M. As the vice president of digital business model innovation at 3M, Mr. Rao led the company’s Silicon Valley digital hub and Internet-of-Things projects, based in Redwood City, California.

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He was in charge of developing new business models for the commercialization of customer solutions in the connectivity space with a special focus on smart cities, wearables and digital wellness.

He also was responsible for championing ecosystem partnerships in collaboration with Silicon Valley accelerators and Internet-of-Things labs.

Prior to 3M, Mr. Rao led the international operations of Life Fitness as part of the Brunswick Corporation leadership team.

During his time at Brunswick, Mr. Rao also co-created Redberri, an open source XML-based middleware system for connecting systems not originally designed to talk to each other. In addition, he secured several patents for Vivo, a wireless fitness management product used widely in the industry.

Mr. Rao began his career as a financial analyst at Procter & Gamble. He has significant global experience, having worked in and led business operations in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North America.

He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Shri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi University and a master’s degree in management from Boston University. ■