SOUNDBITE: BILL FORD, CHAIRMAN, FORD MOTOR COMPANY (ENGLISH) SAYING:

"Alan on behalf of Ford Motor Co, for everything you've done, thank you, you've been absolutely the best."

And with that, at a town hall at Ford headquarters, the company made it official. After eight years, CEO Alan Mulally will step down on July 1 and longtime Ford executive Mark Fields will take the helm.

Mulally is widely credited with helping rescue Ford in one of its darkest periods, from a company hemorrhaging cash to one that turns a profit.

But he was an outsider. This time, they're going with an insider.

Board Chairman Bill Ford said that's just how he wanted it:

SOUNDBITE: BILL FORD, CHAIRMAN, FORD MOTOR COMPANY (ENGLISH) SAYING:

"I would have been disappointed had we had to go outside. One of the things I talked about in the beginning was the continuity and the culture remaining the same so my preference would have been to promote from within but if the better pers