One from Ford Motor Co. The top connected vehicles executives have been hired by Pandora to allow the streaming music company to form partnerships with the automotive industry.
Doug VanDagens, whose LinkedIn page says he came to Ford in 1986, started Monday as the head of Auto Partnerships and strategy of Pandora, according to the company Bay Area. He is responsible for concluding new partnership agreements with car manufacturers, aftermarket hardware suppliers, providers of in-car software platforms and companies involved in autonomous driving, ride sharing and other automotive technologies, Pandora said.
VanDagens was the worldwide director of Ford's connected services, a job that focused on developing connectivity platforms that support autonomous and electric vehicles, wireless updates and apps that allow drivers to communicate with their vehicles. He oversaw Ford's launch of Amazon Alexa integration, Waze navigation streaming, Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities and AppLink / SmartDeviceLink products. He was also the executive liaison of Ford for SiriusXM satellite radio and is chairman of the SmartDeviceLink Consortium.
Last month, SiriusXM said it planned to acquire Pandora in a $ 3.5 billion transaction, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.
"Pandora is committed to identifying new opportunities in the automotive industry to generate more distribution, revenue and involvement," said Dave Geary, vice president of business development at Pandora.