Faces of Ford
Mike Arbaugh: While in Process Designer Pictured His Family, Self Inside New Ford Explorer
Throughout development of the all-new Ford Explorer, Interior Studio Manager Mike Arbaugh would sit in the interior mockup – and, later in the process, in prototype vehicles – imagining himself as driver and his family as passengers.
“It really adds a new dimension to the design process when you represent the target customer,” he said. Arbaugh, who just got married, plans to buy his wife a new Explorer as soon as it’s available. “The kids – hers and mine – are pretty excited about it,” he said.
What’s that like for the interior designer?
“It represents the coming together of my personal life with my profession,” Arbaugh said. “How cool is that?”
Arbaugh joined the Explorer design team just as the program was starting to gain momentum. During a wave of staffing changes, he was appointed to replace a departing colleague in leading Explorer interior design. Arbaugh’s vision for the Explorer interior combined some kinetic European cues with sophisticated North American design language.
“We had two key objectives in the new Explorer design brief,” Arbaugh said. “First, we wanted to make the interior much more sophisticated than the previous model. The second objective was compliance with European standards for interior surfaces and corner radii. While it isn’t widely known, Explorer is our most frequently exported North American nameplate.”
Arbaugh and team took great pride in the Explorer interior, which is decidedly more upscale. He believes the technically advanced audio, navigation and climate controls will combine with the new global Ford DNA switchgear to impart an unexpected sense of elegance for SUV buyers.
A passionate audiophile, Arbaugh takes pride in the metal framed speaker grilles mounted in the first-row door panels.
“Since I always carry a flash drive loaded with my favorite music, I’m really excited about the media bin in the center console, which is concealed by a spring-loaded door,” he said. “It’s effective and attractive.”
Arbaugh has been with Ford for close to 20 years, joining the company right after graduating from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies (CCS) with a degree in automotive design.
What changes at Ford has he observed?
“Starting with the launch of the then-new 2003 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, Ford has continually raised the bar on interior design and craftsmanship,” Arbaugh said.
“Interior design and execution is a higher priority these days,” he added. “And at the end of the day, the customer is the winner.”
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• An eastside Detroit-area native, Arbaugh graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School in 1982
• Before automotive design at CCS, Arbaugh studied engineering and product design while running track for Michigan State University
• Arbaugh just got married, establishing a household with five children between the ages of 9 and 13
• Reflecting his attention to detail, Arbaugh collects pens and timepieces
• Prior to joining Ford, Arbaugh served internships with Prince Corporation and ASC, at the time both tier-one automotive suppliers
• Before Explorer, Arbaugh worked on designs for an array of Ford nameplates, from the 1995 Ford Mustang through the 2009 Ford F-150
Melvin Betancourt: Ford Explorer Designer Finds Inspiration in Latin Dance, Architecture
Ford Explorer Exterior Design Manager Melvin – Mel to everyone – Betancourt finds his inspiration from a variety of sources including urban architecture and even Latin dance.
A New York City native, Betancourt lived in four of the five boroughs growing up. He started collecting Hot Wheels® in 1968, a passion that continues to this day. Strongly influenced by the 1970 Mustang Boss 302 his father purchased brand new, Betancourt’s passion for cars led to a profession.
As a young man, Betancourt aspired to own an automotive service garage in New York. To that end, he attended Automotive High School to earn his mechanic’s certifications. During his senior year, he attended a school assembly where automotive design was discussed and concept cars were presented. Betancourt was transfixed.
He then learned about the transportation design program at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies (CCS). Betancourt moved to the Detroit area, landing an illustrator job at Chrysler Tank Command, and started at CCS. Within a year, he was a drafting detailer with General Motors Engineering. Transferring to GM Design, he became a technical illustrator, and eventually landed a design internship.
Upon earning his bachelor of fine arts from CCS, Betancourt was appointed to a design position with Ford, and over 23 years with the company he has contributed to numerous products. These include several Lincoln models, the 1999 and 2005 Mustang, the 2007 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, and now the next-generation Explorer.
Betancourt serves as Ford Design representative to the automotive aftermarket and the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA). Nuts-and-bolts technical training combined with an artistic eye and his unbridled passion for all things automotive has helped Betancourt to elevate the company’s profile within the SEMA community.
Betancourt has an appreciation for urban architecture, and this special interest is a source of inspiration for the designer.
“Architecture and the next-generation Explorer are all about stance and proportions,” Betancourt said. “These elements make the Explorer so fresh and contemporary.”
Aesthetic salsa
Betancourt’s cultural roots in Spanish Harlem have instilled in him a love of Latin dancing. This lifelong passion, as both enthusiastic participant and appreciative spectator, has enabled a unique perspective for inspiring Explorer design.
“I’ve always found dancing helps release energy, relax me and clear my mind,” he said. “Yet I also look to professional dancers for design inspiration, too. I see form, line and muscle tone in a dancer’s body – just as I see these things in a modern, contemporary SUV. That’s why the new Explorer looks ripped and toned, athletic and graceful.”
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• An enthusiastic yachtsman, Mel owned a Sea Ray 33-foot Sundancer cruiser, extensively used in exploring the Great Lakes surrounding Michigan
• Since 1968, Mel has been an avid collector of Hot Wheels vehicles, larger scale-model cars, and radio-controlled cars and trucks
• Mel is a passionate fan of Latin dancing, combining exercise, culture and performance art
• When Mel was 9, he was profoundly influenced by his father’s purchase of a 1970 Mustang Boss 302 that remained in the Betancourt family through two generations
Todd Hoevener: From Desert Floor to Mountain Peaks, Providing Ford Explorer Capability, Efficiency
Casual observers – from children playing in the sandbox to SUV and outdoor enthusiasts – could easily believe that Todd Hoevener has the best job at Ford Motor Company, if not the world.
Vehicle engineering manager for the 2011 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle, Hoevener has scaled a pass above the tree line near Ouray in Colorado, slogged through deep desert sand in Borrego Springs in California, spun donuts in the muddy red clay of Alabama, and accumulated countless miles at Ford’s proving ground facilities in both Michigan and Arizona to create one of the most advanced traction systems in the world.
“In our Explorer testing, my experience with the terrain management system in sand mode at the Glamis Dunes really showed how the vehicle delivers on capability,” Hoevener said. “In very deep sand – in normal mode – the prototype bogged down, unable to continue. I switched to sand mode, and the next thing you know the vehicle was able to navigate the deep sand.”
All of these Explorer milestones are logged in pursuit of developing and delivering a high-quality, capable, responsive and fuel-efficient sport utility vehicle for the 21st century.
“We set up a red clay mud bog on private property in Alabama,” said Hoevener. “Negotiating slippery stuff helped us to fine-tune the 4WD mud mode for traction and driver control.”
Just another day in the office?
“The vehicle engineering manager serves as the chief technical officer for the product program,” said Hoevener. “My job is to deliver the attributes of the vehicle that the customer notices, like fuel economy, ride quality and capability – on any road, anytime, anywhere – as well as powertrain and dynamic responsiveness.”
Hoevener’s role is to develop these Explorer characteristics, ensuring that all individual elements of the 4WD vehicle come together seamlessly, delivering on the criteria established at program inception.
“I’ve been on previous Explorer programs and have a real affinity for the SUV segment,” Hoevener said. “Our new Explorer is going to change consumer perceptions of what an SUV can be. The user-friendly and accessible capabilities of the intelligent 4WD terrain management system combined with significantly improved performance, handling and fuel economy will help our customers to more efficiently and confidently use their Explorers just as they have before.”
Even prior to his recent Explorer development travels, working at Ford has always been an adventure for the affable, perpetually smiling Hoevener.
“My first job was testing heavy-duty diesel engines for Ford New Holland,” he said. “We used then-new environmental chambers to replicate use under varying conditions. This was exciting stuff for someone who grew up on a farm, surrounded by agricultural machinery.”
Hoevener then worked on several Ford, Lincoln and Mercury car lines, E-Series vans, and both midsize and large SUVs.
A native of Columbus, Ind., he attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. After starting at Ford immediately after his undergraduate program, Hoevener went on to achieve a master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
How does Hoevener keep the Explorer program on track while attending numerous meetings, driving across the desert floor, inching down an eroded washout or driving over a mountain pass above the tree line?
“Within the team and across the company, it starts and ends with good communication,” said Hoevener. “With transparency and openness, the team has rarely been faced with a surprise. This allows us to address any conceivable issues earlier in the development process, saving both time and resources and enabling us to deliver a high-quality sport utility vehicle that exceeds customer expectations.”
Hoevener’s next adventure?
“With Explorer ready to deliver best-in-class fuel efficiency and customer-empowering capabilities, among its many other attributes, I’m off to Australia to develop a new SUV for Asia Pacific region markets,” Hoevener said. “This is going to be fun.”
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• Todd grew up on a farm, surrounded by agricultural implements and vehicles, an ideal environment for a mechanically inclined young man
• Todd’s last name is pronounced “Hayv-ner”
• Married with two growing sons, Todd spends off-hours coaching their sports teams
• A recent Explorer engineering trip took Todd over the 13,114-foot Imogene Pass, thought to be the highest altitude ever reached by vehicle for a Ford development team
Jim Holland: Bringing Luxury Levels of Content, Craftsmanship to Reinvigorated Ford Explorer
While attending college as an architecture student, Jim Holland worked as a rough carpenter in the construction trades. This experience taught him the value of working swiftly, without losing sight of the tiniest of details. Quickly and correctly framing a closet showed Holland how his handiwork fit into the broader perspective of a new home under construction.
“Carpentry taught me the importance of detail orientation and craftsmanship, while following a prescribed time line so that all elements come together in proper sequence,” said Holland. “While I didn’t realize it at the time, lessons I learned as a rough carpenter on a construction site apply to my role as Explorer chief engineer.”
Holland was charged with the reinvention and repositioning of the Ford Explorer, the SUV that defined the segment in the 1990s. Like building a custom home, this requires coordination of multiple teams, perspectives, resources and time lines.
Deeper understanding of Explorer owners – their needs and preferences – gives Holland useful perspective in reconciling all of the details and tradeoffs necessary to deliver a vehicle that redefines the SUV.
As one third of Explorer production is earmarked for export, Holland and the program team balanced global customer preferences, while engineering the vehicle to meet the most stringent requirements of each market where it is sold.
Holland brings this global perspective, having served as chief engineer of Global Hybrid Vehicle Strategy before his Explorer assignment. Prior to his hybrid work, he served as chief engineer at Land Rover for three programs under the top-of-the-line Range Rover nameplate. These posts brought significant influence to his Explorer role.
“Working on the company’s global hybrid strategy underscored the consumer importance of sustainability,” said Holland. “Explorer efficiency is now a huge attribute for us. Both the V6 and the EcoBoost™ I-4 deliver class-leading fuel economy with the power that SUV customers expect. The new Explorer has the capability to take families out into the environment, while preserving it, too.”
Holland’s Land Rover experience is also readily apparent in the 2011 Explorer.
“The new Explorer represents the democratization of luxury SUV levels of style, craftsmanship, technology and capability,” said Holland. “Explorer’s terrain management system is a great example of high-end SUV technology – and the customer empowerment this technology enables – becoming much more broadly accessible.”
Two years into the architecture program at Lawrence Technological University, Holland saw that graduates were having difficulty finding suitable entry-level positions. Given his appreciation and aptitude for art, chemistry and physics, he retrenched and switched his field of study to mechanical engineering, ultimately earning a bachelor of science degree.
On July 2, 1984, Holland – a Michigan native – started with Ford as a body engineer. He spent five years in engineering followed by five years in product planning, while going on to earn his MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy after business hours.
Holland also served for five years as a vehicle engineering development supervisor on Ford Truck programs, supervising a team that delivered best-in-class noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) control on Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator nameplates.
Holland’s management style is characterized by listening intently to all perspectives – including his own well-seasoned intuition – and being decisive.
“Listening well, with customers, suppliers or program team members, takes more time but yields much more favorable outcomes,” said Holland. “Developing personal relationships helps everyone see and share the vision, and really gets them excited about their contributions to the larger picture.”
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• Jim is married, an occasional golfer and a passionate – and sometimes competitive – bicyclist, riding both traditional and fixed-gear road bikes
• While never directly employed with Ford, Jim’s father worked for many years in the construction of several Ford buildings including World Headquarters, multiple Rouge facilities, the Dearborn Dynamometer, and Rawsonville and Saline manufacturing plants
• As a high school student, Jim spent a year in his parents’ native Ireland
• Jim’s aesthetic sensibility, a byproduct of his construction experience and architecture aspirations, has given him a special affinity for balancing engineering solutions with vehicle design direction
Julie Levine or Julie Rocco: Ford Explorer Engineers Job-Share Program Management Position
Send a text message to either Julie Levine or Julie Rocco’s cell phone, and both phones will react simultaneously. They can finish each other’s sentences, while executing and enforcing an aggressive time line. As they rarely stop working to eat, both are known to nibble on snacks during protracted meetings.
Welcome to a shared job arrangement at the highest levels of automotive industry product program management. Levine and Rocco are both working mothers, yet career-driven professional engineers. An innovative Transitional Work Arrangement (TWA) allows them to balance Explorer program management, family and themselves.
“We’re both deeply appreciative of Ford’s approach – allowing us both to continue our career advancement, yet spend more family-centered time,” Rocco said. “TWA enables us to be committed to our families, to our Explorer team and to the company, by being committed to one another.”
These engineers view their shared job from similar, yet unique, perspectives.
“Our job is to act as the glue in bringing every aspect of the Explorer product program together, to achieve the right combination of content to meet our targets for customer satisfaction, business equation and timing,” said Levine. “This involves collaboration with engineering, the design studio, manufacturing, finance, marketing, public affairs, suppliers and others to make sure we are progressing toward our collective goals.”
Just as the “Julies” – as they are invariably called within the company – arrived at their shared position from far different perspectives, they cite their communication cadence as the linchpin in their effectiveness.
Rocco’s activism in the national honor society for engineering – during her undergraduate studies and as an alumnus – prepared her for time, people and project management and for leadership. A random connection at an engineering job fair brought Rocco, almost by chance, to Ford from her home in upstate New York.
Levine – by comparison – was seemingly preordained to join her father, uncle, brothers, sister, brother-in-law and her husband in working at Ford.
They are quick to remind onlookers that they share all job tasks, as opposed to splitting responsibilities. The upshot is consistency – on any issue or question – whether from Rocco on Mondays and Thursdays or Levine on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the Julies are both on-site.
Their weeknight “downloads” allow them to reliably react with one voice. Nightly phone calls from 9:15 to 10:30 enable them to review, balance and plan, and keep Levine and Rocco in sync.
“Both of us work diligently to support each other and the phenomenal team we represent,” said Rocco. “Our job share has helped us both to find balance in life, while increasing our effectiveness on the job.”
Each brings a unique experience to their shared responsibilities on Explorer.
Levine – an 18-year Ford veteran – spent most of her career working on trucks and SUVs, with eight years in chassis engineering and 10 years in program management. She contributed to 1998, 2002 and 2006 Explorer programs, in addition to her shared role for the next-generation model. Levine also worked on Ford Escape, Expedition, Mercury Mariner, Lincoln Navigator and Ford Ranger programs. She spent two years working on South American products such as EcoSport and Ka vehicle lines.
Rocco has divided her 15 years with Ford between body engineering, interior trim and Ford F-Series Super Duty product program management positions. Time spent in body engineering helped Rocco see all aspects of a program come together, from initial concept through volume manufacturing.
Both agree their skill and experience sets complement one another. For example, Levine cites Rocco’s deeper understanding of body engineering and dealing with the design studio as fitting nicely with her own chassis engineering background and contacts.
“It expands our effective ‘wheelbase,’ as each of us brings different perspectives and working relationships to our shared job,” said Levine.
Levine graduated from the University of Michigan with both her BSME and MSME, while Rocco earned her BSME from Binghamton State University of New York (SUNY). Later, Rocco achieved her master’s in engineering management from the University of Michigan.
Both engineers take great pride in the next-generation Explorer.
“We all really believed in the concept of a stylish, capable, yet fuel-efficient SUV for the 21st century,” said Levine. “We looked at the lifespan of SUVs in general and Explorer in particular: What do customers like and value? What would they change about Explorer? How do these customers use their SUVs? As a team, we really dug in.”
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• Rocco and her husband have accumulated almost 190,000 miles on their 1998 Explorer, while Levine and her husband share a classic 1966 Ford Mustang convertible
• Levine has two children, Rocco has one
• Both Julies are married to husbands working at Ford, Rocco meeting hers as they launched Expedition production together
• Levine and Rocco easily identify with Explorer customers and their families
• Both Julies are travel enthusiasts. Rocco enjoys hiking and is an avid gardener, while Levine is a skier and practices martial arts
• Levine comes from a veritable dynasty of past and present Ford employees, while Rocco is the only person in her family to join the auto industry
• Rocco has been very active in university alumni activities, helping to link the Binghamton SUNY engineering program with the automotive industry
Amy Marentic: Engineer-Turned-Product Strategist Helped New Ford Explorer to Raise SUV Bar
Ford Group Marketing Manager Amy Marentic saw the new Explorer as a chance for lightning to strike twice.
“Having just come off the successful launch of the reinvigorated and reengineered Taurus, our team saw the opportunity to reinvent the iconic Ford Explorer,” Marentic said. “Just as the new Taurus has taken the full-size sedan market by storm, we see strong demand for a medium-size SUV that combines luxury, technology, capability and fuel economy. Families – like mine, for example – that seek experience and adventure will appreciate the new Explorer for the empowerment it enables and the fuel economy it delivers.”
Trained as an aerospace engineer, Marentic aimed to be an astronaut. During her senior year at the University of Michigan, she realized that an automotive career could provide years of exhilaration, compared with a brief ride in space she might never achieve. She holds both a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering.
Before joining Ford in 1992, Marentic worked as a product design engineer for Prince Corporation, a top-tier automotive industry supplier.
Marentic’s wide-ranging automotive industry portfolio has encompassed engineering, product planning, business strategy development and regional field sales management roles.
At the center of each of her career experiences, you’ll find the cumulative voice of Ford customers as a key influence.
“Each of the roles in which I’ve served at Ford has provided me with an even deeper understanding of what our customers want and value in a vehicle,” Marentic said. “When we spoke with existing Explorer owners, they were very specific and outspoken about their desires. They want all the capabilities and empowerment they’ve come to expect of Explorer, with luxury levels of technology and convenience, great looks inside and out, with significantly improved fuel economy. We’re confident the new 2011 Explorer will raise the SUV bar.”
Her engineering experience and customer insights, combined with a passion for supporting decisions with quantitative data, have given Marentic the necessary skills to rally a team around reinvigorating both a car, the 2010 Taurus, and an SUV, the 2011 Explorer.