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Ford's U.S. sales chief retires; new COO in Europe named

DETROIT, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co on Friday announced that its U.S. sales and marketing chief, Ken Czubay, will retire and that Barb Samardzich has been promoted to chief operating officer in Europe from product development chief in the region.

Czubay, 64, is to retire November 1. He will be replaced by John Felice, 51, who is currently U.S. general sales manager for Ford and Lincoln.

Samardzich, 54, will be responsible for many of Ford Europe's operations, including manufacturing, product development, purchasing and environment and safety engineering.

Samardzich will continue to report to Stephen Odell, president of Ford of Europe.

Ford has not had a COO of Europe for the last several years.

Samardzich's role will be filled by Joe Bakaj, 51. He is now the global vice president for powertrain engineering at Ford.

Bob Fascetti, 51, was named to replace Bakaj.