3M has appointed Thomas Brown, retired group vice president of global purchasing for Ford Motor Co., it its board of directors, effective as of Aug. 12.

Brown became group vice president of global purchasing for Ford in 2008, with responsibility for $90 billion of production and non-production procurement for Ford operations worldwide. He joined Ford in 1999 from United Technologies Corp., where he was vice president of supply management. Prior to his leadership role at United Technologies, Brown was executive director of corporate purchasing and transportation for QMS, a maker and provider of networked enterprise printing solutions.