Leading Ford Executive To Talk With Smith Engineering Students About Career Opportunities

Rose Mary Farenden, director of global recruiting at Ford Motor Company and formerly chief engineer for the Ford Focus, a car-of-the-year honoree in both Europe and North America, will discuss corporate opportunities in engineering at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, in Seelye 106.

The talk is free, wheelchair accessible and open to the public.

A native of Northern Ireland, Farenden graduated from Queen's University, Belfast, with a degree in mechanical engineering. She worked at Ford's Dunton (Ireland) facility as an undergraduate and received the Irish Young Engineer award in her senior year, based on a project begun at Ford. She started full-time work at Ford in 1988 as a systems analyst, later transferring to systems engineering.

Since 1992, she has held a number of management positions in the company's U.S. and European offices. Prior to joining Ford, Farenden worked as an engineer for British Petroleum, where she handled projects in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

She is a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and serves as a mentor to young engineering professionals. Throughout her career, Farenden has worked to establish links between industry and education. Under Farenden's leadership, Ford has awarded Smith $2.5 million for scholarships and other initiatives designed to accelerate the growth of its engineering program.

Established in 1999, the Picker Program in Engineering and Technology is the first such program at a women's college and one of only a handful at liberal arts colleges. The first 20 students in the program entered this fall.

Farenden's presentation is part of a semester-long colloquium titled "Executive Access," designed to give Smith students access to the insights and experiences of some of the top professionals in the engineering field.

Smith College is consistently ranked among the nation's best liberal arts colleges. Enrolling 2,800 students from every state and 50 other countries, Smith is the largest undergraduate women's college in the United States.

Contact: Laurie Fenlason, lfenlason@smith.edu, (413) 585-2190

October 17, 2000