Jaguar and Land Rover chief Geoff Polites dies in Australia

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — The chief executive of British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover, Geoff Polites, has died in Australia where he was visiting family, Ford Australia said Monday. He was 60.

Polites, a former president of Ford Australia, is credited with leading Jaguar and Land Rover through the on-going sale from Ford to India's Tata Motors Ltd.

The deal is set to net the ailing US carmaker 2.3 billion dollars.

"Geoff was home in Australia for the birth of his first grandchild and, unfortunately, became critically ill while here," Ford Australia president Bill Osborne said in a statement.

"He passed away with his wife and family by his side."

Osborne said Melbourne-born Polites had suffered ill health for two years but was determined to return...