Comment on Ford taps former furniture executive to be CEO

DEARBORN, Mich. — The job of Ford’s new CEO won’t be easy: He will have to shore up the 114-year-old company’s traditional auto business, but also invest in self-driving cars and other projects that could one day make that business obsolete. Ford thinks Jim Hackett is up to the task. The 62-year-old former chief executive of office furniture maker Steelcase was named to the post Monday, just three days after former CEO Mark Fields told the company he wanted to retire. Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, said Hackett is a visionary who can help Ford modernize and become more nimble.