Ford's North America president, Raj Nair, is out due to 'inappropriate behavior'

Ford's president of North America, Raj Nair, is no longer with the company — effective immediately.

The company offered a statement about Nair's departure on Wednesday, explaining that "The decision follows a recent internal investigation into reports of inappropriate behavior." Nair was found by a review to have behaved in a way that was "inconsistent with the company’s code of conduct."

In the statement, Nair said, “I sincerely regret that there have been instances where I have not exhibited leadership behaviors consistent with the principles that the Company and I have always espoused."

Nair joined the Detroit-based car company in 1987 as a launch engineer. He'd served as the Ford North America president since June of 2017. His company bio page had been updated as of Wednesday afternoon to reflect the departure — it now includes a lot of past tense phrasing, like his role description: "He was responsible for leading all aspects of Ford’s North American business units."

At last year's TechCrunch Disrupt event in New York, Nair, who was then the chief technical officer and head of product development, had talked about self-driving cars and a growing dependence on ride-hailing services.

A replacement for Nair will be announced in the "near future," the company said.

UPDATE: Feb. 26, 2018, 10:51 a.m. PST Ford named its new Ford North America president following Nair's departure. Kumar Galhotra will take on the role starting Thursday. Galhotra has been with Ford for 29 years and leading the Lincoln Motor Company since 2014.

The company also announced other changes to its senior management team, but didn't provide any new information about now-departed Nair's "inappropriate behavior."