PERSONNEL
Fi McMartin has been named as the new East Anglia area sales manager at parts and accessories distributor, Bickers. Fi has been part of the McMartin family business since 2011.
In her new role as the area sales manager in East Anglia, Fi will be joining a team of area managers in the UK.
At the start of June Tim Martin from K&N Engineering was elected SEMA’s chairman-elect and will help the SEMA board of directors lead the association for the 2017–2019 term. Martin fills the position held for the past two years by Wade Kawasaki of the Coker Group, who will begin serving his term as chairman in July. James Lawrence from Power Automedia was also voted onto the SEMA board of directors, and Greg Adler from Transamerican Auto Parts was re-elected, and will serve another term.
Magna Tyres Group has named Muktar Barrie as sales manager for the French-speaking countries in West-Africa effective 1 July. In his new position he has taken on the responsibility for growing the Magna Tyres market presence and will focus on developing strong customer relationships.
Maxxis, has announced the appointment of experience tyre industry marketeer, Nikki McCluney. As a HiQ Goodyear Dunlop alumni – and with over twenty years’ senior level marketing experience spanning retail, fast fit, fuel and light commercial vehicle, McCluney is tasked with raising awareness of the quality, performance and value offering of Maxxis products across passenger car, bicycle, motorcycle and specialist tyre markets. McCluney is also tasked with cultivating the existing UK dealer network and promoting the impressive profit margin opportunities available, and lifetime warranty offered on a majority of car tyres. Developing relations with existing and prospective overseas distribution partners in order to grow market share across Europe is also on the agenda.
Following Triangle Tyre’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2016 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the company has raised capital to drive its business forward. As a result, the Weihai-Shandong based company has initiated a globalization process aimed at increasing its shares in the most strategic markets. This means the establishment of new European Headquarters in Milan, Italy and a newly appointed European team. Triangle Tyre has chosen Corrado Moglia to lead its European growth agenda, as general manager for Europe. Moglia is a tyre veteran with more than 25 years of experience in the industry with Bridgestone, Marangoni and Giti Tire in his career, with his latest position in Giti being managing director for Latin America and Europe.
Exol Lubricants has promoted Robert Lundie from within the area sales team to the role of technical services manager where he will play an important role in efficiently communicating with customers.
ATS Euromaster has appointed Jess Jones as Head of National Fleets, with the goal of driving the tyre and vehicle maintenance provider’s growth in the car and light commercial vehicle (LCV) national leasing fleets sector.
Bandvulc managing director Patrick O’Connell, who started in the family tyre retreading business by working on the factory floor in his school holidays, stepped down as MD of the Bandvulc group of companies on 1 May 2017. According to the company, he will now “spend more time on other projects within Continental”, Bandvulc’s owner since the tyre giant purchased the retreader and fleet business last July.
Nokian Tyres has appointed Frans Westerlund vice president, CIO and Processes. He will join the company’s management team on 1 August 2017 and will report to the president and CEO.
Kordsa has announced the appointment of Ali Caliskan as the company’s new CEO. Also announced by Kordsa is the move of Cenk Alper from CEO to group president of the affiliated Sabanci Holdings Industry Group. Alper has been in the CEO position since 2013.
Following Nokian Tyre’s Annual General Meeting, on 10 April 2017, the company’s board of directors held an organisational meeting in which Petteri Walldén was elected chairman of the Board and Tapio Kuula was elected deputy chairman of the board.
Duraturn UK, the local branch of Chinese petrochemical giant Yanchang Petroleum’s Yanchang Rubber tyre manufacturing operation, has established a local sales team. After a recruitment process that ran through the course of 2016, Duraturn UK has appointed a team of sales, sales support and administration staff dedicated to the development of the tyre brands presence in the UK market.
The Tire Dealers Association of Canada has announced the appointment of Richard Bender as president. TDAC’s primary mandate is maintaining a strong liaison with provincial tyre associations across Canada. The Tire Dealers of Canada recently announced they will be hosting a national trade show and convention in Toronto during September 2018.
Prof Dr Edward Holweg will be appointed as the new COO of VMI Group effective 1 April 2017. Dr Holweg succeeds Guido Roncken MBA, who held this position for over 10 years.
Winton Engineering has appointed a new commercial manager, Paul Smith. Since its acquisition by rotary vane compressor manufacturer Mattei in 2015, Winton has invested in a branding refresh, and has launched a number of new products to enhance its overall offering of on-vehicle power solutions – including built-in compressor solutions.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.