Bridgestone fills pair of 'mission-critical' VP positions

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bridgestone Americas Inc. has hired a pair of executives from outside the tire industry to fill vice president positions classified as "mission-critical" roles for Bridgestone's strategic goals.

Rebecca Vest, formerly with Nissan North America Inc., has been named senior vice president, procurement and strategic sourcing partnerships, while Andrea Arrowsmith, formerly with Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc., has been named vice president, transformation initiatives and enterprise project management office.

The roles assumed by Ms. Vest and Ms. Arrowsmith are expanded positions from their predecessors, Bob Mowery, formerly vice president, procurement, and Ed Babrich, formerly vice president, enterprise project management office.

Mr. Mowery retired recently, while Mr. Babrich left Bridgestone at year-end 2017 and took a position with Advent International.

Ms. Vest and Ms. Arrowsmith will be based in Nashville and report to Bill Thompson, Bridgestone Americas' chief operating officer, who called the new hires "strong leaders" who will "take on these mission-critical roles to build on our solid foundation for the future of Bridgestone Americas.

"Each will play a unique and important role in partnering with our businesses and functions to elevate the already strong work of our teams and help us achieve our company's growth and financial targets," he said.

Ms. Vest brings more than 30 years of auto industry experience to Bridgestone, where she will be responsible for leading the integrated procurement organization, working throughout the Americas with consumer and commercial tire businesses, marketing and logistics and supply chain. She will partner with the leadership team of Firestone Natural Rubber to promote sourcing best practices and organizational alignment.

She spent nine years at Nissan North America, most recently as vice president of corporate development and social responsibility. Prior to that, she was vice president of purchasing, overseeing procurement of parts, materials, vendor tooling, logistics, services, machinery and equipment, media, aftersales and accessories throughout North American.

She was North American regional purchasing head for the Renault-Nissan Purchasing Organization and was on the Nissan Foundation board of directors. In 2015, she was named to the Automotive News Top 100 Leading Women list and the University of Kentucky Gatton School of Business Alumni Hall of Fame.

Prior joining Nissan, Ms. Vest worked for 22 years at Toyota Motor Corp. in purchasing roles. She has a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Kentucky.

Ms. Arrowsmith brings 20-plus years of management experience to Bridgestone, including the last three at Bed Bath & Beyond, where she managed a portfolio of operational excellence and change management initiatives as vice president of the strategy portfolio management office.

In her role at Bridgestone, Ms. Arrowsmith will be responsible for helping deliver key projects that drive business strategy, transform and elevate the way the company operates across its value chain and drive continuous improvement across the enterprise, Bridgestone said.

Prior to working with Bed Bath & Beyond, she was director of the program management office for the B2B division of Office Depot Inc. and led large, cross-functional internal and consultant teams to deliver business transformation and cost savings programs after the company merged with OfficeMax.

Ms. Arrowsmith began her career in technology consulting at Revere Group, building financial ERP solutions and spent 12 years at Accenture, leading global operational excellence and strategic financial management teams for Accenture's outsourcing division.

Ms. Arrowsmith has a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.