(Adds details, naming of Ligocki's replacement at Ford)
DETROIT, July 29 (Reuters) - Tower Automotive Inc. said on Tuesday that Kathleen Ligocki, a top executive at Ford Motor Co. , had been named to take over as the auto supplier's new president and chief executive.
Ligocki, vice president of Ford's customer service division and a former chief executive of Ford of Mexico, replaces Dugald Campbell, who is retiring, Tower said in a statement.
The 46-year-old Ligocki, who was considered a rising star at Ford, was an appointee of former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser who was ousted amid a mounting financial crisis at the world's second-largest automaker in October 2001.
In a related announcement, Ford said it had named Francisco Codina as head of the customer service division, succeeding Ligocki.
Codina, a 26-year Ford veteran, was most recently general marketing manager of the Ford division.
Late last year Tower, which makes automotive body structures, frames and chassis modules, made headlines when it said it would walk away from making the frame for the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle rather than cut costs further.
The Explorer business was Tower's single-largest contract and Tower had said previously that 35 percent of its business came from Ford.
Automakers have been forced into a permanent mode of cost-cutting, partly due to consumer incentives. They in turn squeeze annual cost reductions from their suppliers, which range from 1 percent to 8 percent per year, according to the trade group the Original Equipment Suppliers Association.