Ex-Bridgestone executive Paolo Ferrari has joined Element Fleet Management Corp., purportedly the largest publicly traded automotive fleet manager in the world. Specifically, Ferrari has been nominated to stand for election to the company’s board of directors at its shareholder AGM on 2 May 2025.
At the end of this month, Paolo Ferrari will hand over his current roles within Bridgestone Corporation prior to his departure from the company at year’s end. The company has named Scott Damon his successor in several key positions.
The implementation of Bridgestone Corporation’s new global management structure, as announced earlier today, is accompanied by numerous changes in job title and responsibilities. All management changes mentioned here take effect 1 January 2024.
The Board of Directors of Bridgestone Corporation today approved a resolution to implement a new global management structure. This structure will take effect on 1 January 2024 and divide Bridgestone’s business into two regions, Bridgestone East and Bridgestone West. Each region will have its own Chief Executive Officer who will report to Global Chief Executive Officer, Shu Ishibashi.
At the first meeting of the industry organisation’s 2024 fiscal year, the Board of Directors of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) elected Michelin’s Alexis Garcin to the role of Chairman. Garcin, who is president and chief executive officer of Michelin North America, began his two-year chairmanship on 11 October, succeeding Bridgestone’s Paolo Ferrari, who had served as USTMA’s Board chair since 2021.
On Wednesday, Bridgestone Americas held a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of one of its truck and bus tyre plants in the USA. An investment of US$550 million will increase the footprint of the Warren County, Tennessee factory by 850,000 square feet (79,000 square metres) and lift production capacity while adding 380 jobs to the plant’s workforce. Bridgestone will also equip the plant for producing tyres featuring Enliten technology.
Bridgestone Corporation has selected Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) as its strategic cloud provider. In this capacity, AWS will support Bridgestone’s sustainable mobility solutions.
Bridgestone Americas will spend US$550 million over the coming two years on the expansion and modernisation of its Warren County truck and bus radial tyre plant in the US state of Tennessee. The project will add 380 jobs to the Warren County workforce and expand the plant’s existing footprint by 850,000 square feet (around 79,000 square metres).
Two years after first partnering to develop an intelligent tyre monitoring system, Bridgestone Corporation is extending its collaboration with Microsoft. It will use Microsoft Azure to create value for customers, primarily global fleets and OEMs, by integrating advanced tyre analytics to provide a better overview of treadwear and casing health. By doing so, Bridgestone aims to raise customer productivity and efficiency by maximising retreading and informing when tyre maintenance may be needed.
An opening ceremony took place yesterday for Bridgestone’s new racing tyre manufacturing facility in the USA. The inauguration of the Advanced Tire Production Center (ATPC) in Akron, Ohio provides Bridgestone Americas with the means of enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of its race tyre production. Housing a team of 60, the US$21 million plant will manufacture all Firestone Firehawk race tyres for the NTT IndyCar Series.
On 18 April, the Board of Directors at Bridgestone Corporation decided to strengthen the company’s global management structure by appointing two joint global chief operating officers. Paolo Ferrari will join Masahiro Higashi, who has served as Bridgestone’s global chief operating officer since July 2020, in this capacity on 1 May 2022. Both report to Shu Ishibashi, Bridgestone Corporation’s global chief executive officer. Ferrari’s remit will expand to include responsibility for Bridgestone’s business in Europe.
Bridgestone Americas has commenced an exclusive partnership with carbon capture and transformation (CCT) specialist LanzaTech NZ, Inc. to address end-of-life tyre waste. The two companies will co-develop the first dedicated end-of-life tyre recycling process leveraging LanzaTech’s proprietary CCT technology.
Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) has reached an agreement with tech-focused private equity firm Sumeru Equity Partners, connected vehicle specialist Danlaw and other shareholders to purchase Azuga Holdings, Inc. (Azuga) and the Azuga fleet management platform for US$391 million. Bridgestone says the acquisition will accelerate its efforts to develop and deploy sustainable mobility solutions as a “central pillar of the company’s advanced mobility strategy.”
Sara Correa is the newly-appointed chief marketing officer at Bridgestone Americas. She will begin in this role on 26 July, succeeding Philip Dobbs, who recently announced he will retire from Bridgestone in October after a brief transition period.
Bridgestone Corporation is working to incorporate additional sustainability into its business model. Alongside plans to establish and build up a recycling business, retreading remains a key part of these efforts and features in the company’s plans to invest 700 billion yen (£4.6 billion) in strategic resources by 2023. To expand retreading activities, Bridgestone is looking at other segments besides commercial truck and OTR tyre retreading.
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Stephen Goodchild / Tyre Industry Publications Ltd