When Alan Mulally took over the reigns of Ford, the old American automaker was in dire straights. It’s product lineup was beset by quality issues and bad reviews, there was no sense of global unity despite sharing the same badge, and the company was hemorrhaging money like it was going out of style. In fact, Mulally joined Ford as CEO in 2006, just two years before the bottom fell out of the global economy. But he stuck it out, and helped turn Ford around, and now it’s time to hand off the reigns to someone else.

That someone else is COO Mark Fields, long expected to be Mulally’s successor, who will officially take over as Ford CEO on July 1st, making a smooth transition from one boss to another.

Fields, 53, has served as COO since December of 2012, and he was also a key player in leading Ford’s massive reorganization in North America since 2005. At 53 years old, he’ll be almost a decade younger than Alan Mulally when the former Boeing CEO took over Ford in 2006. As for Mulally, the 68-year old plans to retire after his Ford gig comes to a close, ending a 45-year career that started in 1969 at Boeing.

Under Mulally, the “One Ford” plan has united the automaker’s global operations with products that have maximum overlap in terms of parts, helping lead Ford to 19 consecutive quarters of profitability. The Blue Oval now has arguably its strongest lineup of vehicles ever, covering every market segment from electric vehicles, to all-out muscle cars, to commercial-grade vehicles used all over the world.

Mulally can retire knowing that, unlike so many other executives these days, he left Ford in a much better way than when he came on.