SmarTire Appoints New President and CEO

SmartTire Systems Inc has appointed Leif E Pedersen as the new president and CEO of SmarTire, effective immediately. Pedersen replaces Al Kozak who has left the company to pursue other interests.

In making the announcement, SmarTire’s chairman, Robert Rudman said: “Leif Pedersen brings to our company an ideal combination of management skills, technical expertise and worldwide marketing experience. He will provide the leadership required to move SmarTire to its next major stage of development by enabling the company to accomplish its vision for mobile wireless sensing platforms. The board of directors is committed to SmarTire’s vision and is confident that Leif will accelerate our corporate growth by exploiting its competitive advantages in the international tyre-monitoring marketplace and by leveraging this strong position in the pursuit of an expanded product offering. Finally, the board appreciates the efforts and contributions of Al Kozak, who served SmarTire as the chief operations officer and as the president and CEO. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Pedersen, a Norwegian citizen, was formerly the managing director of Consilium GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, responsible for marketing, sales, support and service for a complete line of technical products for the maritime industry including radar, speed logs and various monitoring and detection systems. He was previously programme director for SensoNor ASA, a company specializing in the development and production of micro sensors, particularly for the automotive applications. SensoNor is one of the largest sensor suppliers within its niche in the automotive industry.

Pedersen’s experience also includes a variety of sales and marketing and executive positions with Norcontrol AS, The Marine Group, Inc. and Kongsberg Norcontrol AS. He holds a master’s degree in electronics from the Technical University in Trondheim, Norway, and has a degree in business administration from the Bedriftsokonomisk Institutt in Norway. He also earned an export candidate certificate from the Norwegian Export School. He has studied cybernetics, electronics, sales and marketing and leadership training. Fluent in English, Norwegian and German, Pedersen is a director of Consilium Sevoteknikk AS in Oslo, Norway.