CEO managed sale of Jaguar

Geoff Polites, 60, Jaguar and Land Rover’s chief executive who is credited with steering the storied British luxury brands through the ongoing sale process to India’s Tata Motors Ltd., died Sunday in his home country of Australia after battling serious illness for the last two years, Ford Motor Co. said. Additional details, including where in Australia he died, weren’t released.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford credits Polites with leading the team that returned the overall Jaguar and Land Rover business to profitability. Ford said Sunday it still anticipated completing the deal with Tata in the second quarter.

“Geoff ensured that Jaguar Land Rover was not distracted and continued to focus on the fundamentals of the business during the recent sale process, despite at the time also fighting his own personal health battle,” Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement.

Polites, who had a nearly 40-year career in the automotive industry, took over as CEO of Jaguar Land Rover in 2005. Before taking the job, he was vice president for marketing, sales and service for Ford of Europe.

Polites was born in Melbourne. He joined Ford Australia in 1970 as a product planner and completed training in the United States and Europe before rejoining Ford Australia in 1975 as marketing and research manager.