New Northern European Zone Means Promotions for Bridgestone UK Executives
Bridgestone’s decision to introduce a new management structure in Europe has resulted in a number of promotions for executives at the company’s UK headquarters. John McNaught will become the North Region (UK, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden) managing director with Sam Enya as the North Region deputy managing director. Enya will also become the North Region sales administration director, focusing on business administration, budgeting and reporting. The North Region countries have already been working together for a number of years but the result of the reorganisation is that the management of all activities has now been defined.
The promotions came into effect on 1 January 2011 and form part of a wider restructuring process which Bridgestone says it has undertaken to “adapt to market conditions and improve communications across the business in northern Europe.”
New directors for all sales and marketing divisions have also been announced. John Folliss will become the North Region commercial sales and marketing director with Andy Lane taking the position of North Region consumer sales and marketing director. Pat Curran becomes the North Region finance director and all Bridgestone’s human resources functions will be the responsibility of Paul Lawrie, who will become the North Region human resources director.
In addition, Ken Summers has been announced as the North Region technical manger, Alex Watson will become North Region retail director and David Gray becomes North Region retread director.
John McNaught, North Region managing director, commented: “These promotions will further strengthen the firm’s sales and marketing function and enable Bridgestone to react quickly to all opportunities that arise. We want to offer an excellent service to all customers while at the same time providing local dealers in each country with even better on-site support. Our aim is to further improve customer service and optimize the efficiency of internal processes.”
As Tyres & Accessories reported when the initial stages of the strategic adjustment were first announced in September 2010, the North Region countries will now form one region in the European branch of the global Bridgestone organisation.
The reorganisation also means significant changes are to be implemented in five other geographical regions, each with its own regional headquarters that will operate under the overall control of Bridgestone’s European headquarters in Brussels. Like the developments at the North Region, changes at the other five areas were scheduled for completion on 1 January 2011.
At the same time all this information was released senior management changes were scheduled to take effect at Bridgestone Europe on 1 October. Back then Yuji Takeuchi, chairman and former senior vice president of sales and marketing, and Yasuhiko Tanokashira both returned to positions in Japan. Meanwhile Mitsuhira (Mike) Shimazaki joined the Bridgestone Europe management group as senior vice president Business Operations.
Gerry Duffy, currently vice president sales and marketing for Europe transferred to the role of Bridgestone Germany managing director. Duffy replaced Benoit Raulin who transferred to Bridgestone’s European headquarters in Brussels as vice president of finance and procurement.
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