38-Year-Old Takes the Wheel at Mazda

Mazda Motor Corp. appointed Mark Fields, a 38-year-old American as president in a move seen as breathing fresh energy into Japan’s fifth-largest auto maker and Ford Motor Co. affiliate. Fields, who joined Mazda in 1998 after 10 years at Ford, becomes the youngest president of a Japanese car maker and replaces James Miller, who retired after two years at the helm. Miller told a news conference that doctors advised him last year to consider stepping down and that in recent weeks it had become clear that he had “no option but to retire.” Fields joined Mazda in August 1998 as a senior advisor for marketing and sales after moving swiftly through Ford’s ranks. He became a senior managing director in June and was made executive vice president assisting the president last month. Fields, brushing off suggestions that his youthfulness would be factor in his leadership, said he would keep the company focused on restructuring and cutting costs to reduce debt while working on improving the auto maker’s distribution network. Mazda, in which Ford raised its stake to 33.4% in 1996, posted a profit in its latest fiscal year, the first in six years.