Hayes Lemmerz Announces Senior Management Changes

Hayes Lemmerz has announced that company vice president, James Stegemiller has decided to retire. In his role as company vice president, Mr Stegemiller was also president of the Hayes Lemmerz’s North American Wheel Group. The announced retired will be effective from 1 November, 2004.

“I would like to thank Jim for the significant role he has played since he joined the Company in October 2001,” said Curtis Clawson, president, CEO and chairman of the board. “Jim played a very important role in the company’s reorganization, successfully leading our North American wheel business through a significant turnaround over the term of his three-year agreement with the company. He was a champion of many continuous improvement initiatives, which had a meaningful impact on his operations. He will be missed in the wheel business but all of us at Hayes Lemmerz wish him well.”

Edward W Kopowski will assume responsibility for the North American Wheel Group while continuing in his role as president of Hayes Lemmerz’ Commercial Highway and Aftermarket Group and Operational Excellence.

Mr Kopkowski joined Hayes Lemmerz in 2002 as vice president of Operational Excellence. Prior to Hayes Lemmerz, Mr Kopkowski was president of Kopko Associates, Ltd, a consulting firm which he founded. Mr Kopkowski as has experience of the automotive brake industry, having been a plant manager for Bosch Braking Systems and having held a variety of management roles in operations and engineering, at AlliedSignal Braking Systems and, prior to this, Bendix Automotive Brake Systems.

“Ed is the right person to assume this role at this time,” said Mr Clawson. “He brings a unique blend of a focused operational excellence background with a tremendous amount of manufacturing savvy. The transition should be seamless.”

Mr Kopkowski holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an MA in management from Nazareth College. He is also a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Michigan and an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.