Navistar International has appointed Bill Osborne as senior vice president of global quality.

The 52 year-old most recently served as senior vice president of Navistar's specialty business, including Navistar RV, before coming to Navistar in April 2011.

Osborne spent 20 years of his career at Ford Motor Company serving in a number of senior-level positions, including president and chief executive officer of Ford Australia as well as of Ford Canada. He also spent two years as executive director for pickup trucks and commercial vehicles, responsible for the engineering design, development and release of these high-quality products. His earlier assignments at Ford included a variety of roles with increasing responsibility in product design, development and engineering, during a time when Ford significantly improved its quality performance.

"Bill played an important role in helping transform Ford into a quality leader in the automotive industry," said Eric Tech, Navistar president of global truck and engine. "I have every confidence that he will be able to use the same skills and rigor he demonstrated at Ford to oversee Navistar's quality transformation and improving customer satisfaction."

Osborne, who will report to Tech, will head up quality and reliability for all Navistar products worldwide.

"We have come a long way in quality with our new Class 8 products," Osborne said. "I am confident we are investing in the right technologies and capabilities across our enterprise to ultimately be the quality leader in our industry."

Prior to joining Navistar Osborne spent two years as a member of the Navistar Board of Directors. He was elected to the board while president and chief executive officer of Federal Signal Corporation, a position he held from September 2008 until November 2010. Before his career at Ford, Osborne held positions at Chrysler and General Motors.