Bridgestone Corporation has announced several executive leadership changes in its Americas and Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA) regions, following the appointment of Shuichi Ishibashi as new CEO. The company said the changes reflect its “commitment to thoughtful succession planning” focusing on its global growth agenda.
A new role for Joseph Saoud at Bridgestone Americas. The former president, truck bus radial and retread tyres, US and Canada, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, has been named president, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Latin America. In this role, Saoud will oversee the Bridgestone tyre business in Latin America, which includes subsidiaries in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. He will report directly to Gordon Knapp, president and chief executive officer of Bridgestone Americas.
Beginning in 2019, Bridgestone will act as title sponsor for the Senior Players Championship, the annual golf championship for players aged 50 and over on the PGA Tour Champions. The agreement announced by PGA Tour yesterday covers a four-year period through 2022, and when players head out onto the Firestone Country Club’s South Course between 8-14 July, they will be competing in the ‘Bridgestone Senior Players Championship’.
At a ceremony yesterday, Bridgestone Americas, Inc. celebrated the official opening of its new headquarters building, Bridgestone Tower. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, the 514,000-square foot (47,750 square metre), 30-storey tower is now home to more than 1,700 Bridgestone employees.
Bridgestone Americas has celebrated the ‘topping out’ of its new headquarters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee to mark the completion of the 30-storey structure. Joined by Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, Bridgestone Americas leaders also announced a new name for the headquarters; the new name, chosen by the company’s employees, is Bridgestone Tower.
In addition to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of its car and light truck tyre factory in Joliette, Canada, last Thursday Bridgestone Americas officially broke ground on expansion work at the plant. Upwards of CAD$300 million (£178.1 million) will be invested over a period of five years and will see the installation of new equipment installed at the Joliette site that will lift production capacity by 3,000 tyres per day to a total of 20,000 tyres a day by 2023.
At the end of this year, Gary Garfield will retire as chief executive officer, president and executive chairman of Bridgestone Americas. He leaves the company on 31 December 2016 after a career at Bridgestone that spans a quarter century. He will also retire from his position as executive vice-president and executive officer of parent company Bridgestone Corporation, effective 31 August.
