New president for Bridgestone Americas’ OTR tyre business

Bridget Neal has been named president, off-the-road (OTR), Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO), succeeding Taylor Cole, who recently took on the position of president of Firestone Building Products, LLC. Her appointment within this Bridgestone Americas business took effect yesterday.

Neal’s career with Bridgestone spans a decade and a half; most recently, she served as director of OTR tyre sales, a role she took on in 2015. Joining Bridgestone in August 2002 as a supply planning and sourcing engineer, Neal has held positions of increasing responsibility within the company’s commercial tyre business, including commercial supply chain manager; manager of distribution programmes for Bridgestone Bandag retread systems; account executive for original equipment commercial truck and bus tyres; and general manager of original equipment and government sales for the truck and bus business.

“Bridget has developed extensive knowledge of the commercial tyre business across her 15-year career with Bridgestone,” said Kurt Danielson, president, commercial group, US and Canada, BATO. “She has held a number of leadership roles in critical business areas, including supply and demand planning, logistics, marketing and more. Her business acumen, combined with the great relationships she has built with our OTR customers domestically and globally, makes her incredibly well-suited for this important role.”

As president, Neal will lead all aspects of the Bridgestone OTR tyre business in North America, including strategic planning, product and technology introductions, sales and engineering. She will be responsible for aligning the company’s go-to-market strategies with the broader commercial portfolio, while also helping drive coordination for the Bridgestone OTR business globally. Additionally, Neal will continue to advance the company’s efforts to develop industry-leading technology solutions that track tyre performance and help OTR customers improve their productivity and profitability.