Ford Motor Company has appointed Bibiana Boerio, chief financial officer at Ford Credit, to join the carmaker's international operations unit.

Ms Boerio becomes finance and strategy director of Ford's international operations, reporting to Mr Thursfield.

Ms Boerio was Ford Credit CFO for over two years, and was finance director of Jaguar for 5 years until 2000.

The strengthening of its international team is in line with Ford belief that most of its growth in the next five to 10 years will come from markets in Asia and South America.

Mr Thursfield told the Financial Times last month that he wants to develop a new range of small, mass-market vehicles for Europe and emerging markets in Asia and South America, in an effort to increase global sales.