Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc. (BSAH) has made a number of executive personnel changes within its tire operations.
Christine Karbowiak, the company’s current vice president of community and corporate relations, will be joining the Bridgestone Americas Board of Directors effective Jan. 1, making her the first woman to ever serve on a Bridgestone corporate board.
Asahiko “Duke” Nishiyama has been selected to lead a new unit called Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO). Reporting into this division will be the company’s Latin American tire operations, the U.S. and Canadian consumer tire businesses and the U.S. and Canadian commercial tire operations. Nishiyama will continue to report to Mark A. Emkes, BSAH’s chairman, CEO and president.
“This new structure will allow us to provide even greater focus on our overall tire business in the Americas, and it will align us more closely with the regional business model that Bridgestone Corp. is promoting for all of its global tire operations,” says Emkes.
“The structure…will also reflect the Bridgestone Group’s desire for global standardization in the way we go to market, providing our international customers a consistent business model that they can rely on regardless of their geographic region,” he adds.
“Bottom line,” says Emkes: “This realignment will help us eliminate confusion on a global scale, provide for enhanced synergies and allow us to be even more responsive to evolving customer needs.”
Emkes goes on to observe how “we all know that we as an industry have a great deal of hard work ahead of us in the face of an extremely challenging financial environment. It is my belief that these changes will help Bridgestone Americas enhance its focus on our core business — tires — and assist us in weathering those challenges; allowing us to emerge even stronger whenever the global economy recovers.”
Reporting to Nishiyama under the new organizational setup will be:
- Eduardo Minardi, who will continue as president of the company’s Latin American Tire division.
- Michael K. Gorey, currently chairman, CEO and president of Bridgestone Firestone Diversified Products (BFDP). Under the new structure, Gorey will serve as president of BATO’s, U.S. & Canada Consumer Tire Sales division. Reporting to Gorey will be:
- Michael Martini, president of Original Equipment within the U.S. & Canada Consumer Tire Sales division; and
- John Baratta, president of Replacement Tire Sales.
- Saul A. Solomon, currently president of Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions (BBTS). Under the new structure, Solomon will serve as president of the U.S. & Canada Commercial Tire Sales division. Reporting to Solomon will be:
- Kenneth L. Allen, president of Agricultural Tire within the U.S. & Canada Commercial Tire Sales division;
- Shawn Rasey, president of Off the Road Tire; and
- Scott Gateley, general manager of Tube Business.
In the new alignment, Solomon will serve concurrently as BBTS president, (his current position), and his existing BBTS reporting relationships will remain in place.
- Narumi “Nick” Zaitsu, currently vice chairman of Bridgestone Americas, who will assume the additional title of BATO’s executive vice president. Reporting to Zaitsu will be:
- Yasutaka Enoki, who will continue serving in his concurrent positions as executive vice president of BATO’s Product Development Group and president of the Bridgestone Americas Center for Research and Technology, and;
- Steve W. Shelton, BATO’s vice president of Supply, Planning and Sourcing.
- Stephen W. Brooks, president of BATO’s U.S., Canada and Monterrey Manufacturing group.
- David C. Laubie, vice president of BATO’s Sales Engineering unit.
In addition, the following people and BATO staff functions will report to Nishiyama: Melissa McGuire, vice president of legal and general counsel for the U.S. and Canada ; William Thompson, controller for the U.S. and Canada (he was formerly controller at BBTS); Linda Baskin, vice president of human resources for the U.S. and Canada; Dennis George, vice president of enterprise planning for BATO (he is also vice president of enterprise planning for Bridgestone Americas); and Mike Kane, vice president of Quality Assurance & Six Sigma, at BATO, and he also holds the same position for Bridgestone Americas.
As a result of the restructuring and the reassignment of the executives to new positions within BATO, the following additional changes were also announced: Ken Weaver, currently Bridgestone Americas corporate controller and concurrently vice president of finance for BFNT, will succeed Gorey as chairman, CEO and president of BFDP. Succeeding Weaver as Bridgestone Americas corporate controller will be Tim Walsh, who currently serves as BFNT’s controller.
In addition to Nishiyama, Weaver will report to Emkes, as will Larry Magee, chairman, CEO and president of BFS Retail & Commercial Operations; Zaitsu, in his capacity as vice chairman at Bridgestone Americas; and each of Bridgestone Americas staff functions, including finance, legal and corporate compliance, enterprise planning, human resources, quality assurance, community and corporate relations, and the controller’s office.
For more information, visit www.bfusa.com.
