How long will Ford Canada’s latest grande frommage hang around?

That’s my first question after the automaker announced today that “veteran” Ford marketing executive, David Mondragon, will take over from former Ford Canada CEO and president, Barry Engle, left, who resigned last week after only being in Oakville all of eight months.

The fact that Mondragon will be the fifth Ford Canada CEO in less than four years isn’t really the big news here.

Our market, with its five distinct regions, is a great testing ground for young car execs being groomed for bigger ponds. The thinking in the auto industry is: If you can make it in Canada, you can make it anywhere.

No. It’s the fact that on the same day last week Engle bailed, Ford’s Australian boss, Bill Osborne, right, (ironically, Engle’s predecessor in Canada), also announced he was jumping ship.

Both Engle and Osborne took their respective posts earlier this year. And both officially said they were leaving Ford to greener pastures outside the auto industry.

Coincidence?

Like here in Canada, Ford’s Aussie operations are in a drastic downsizing phase, with 350 jobs recently being cut at Victorian plants.

Ford’s PR’s spin is that Engle is off to Pennsylvania, his home state, to join New Holland Agricultural Equipment SpA as president and CEO; while Ford Australia said Osborne will relocate to America to “fulfill a dream” as a “chief executive position for an independently-owned publicly listed company.”

How vague is that? At least it wasn’t the “spend more time with my family” cliché.

Whatever. The stop watch on Mondragon starts today…

[Source: Ford]