Gabriel Asbun to head Bridgestone Americas tires unit in exec realignment

TOKYO — Bridgestone Corp. is realigning a number of executive positions in its Americas and Asia/Pacific regions in line with its drive to become a global leader in advanced mobility and sustainable solutions.

The realignment primarily affects Gabriel Asbun, CEO and chief operating officer of Bridgestone Asia Pacific, and TJ Higgins, a Bridgestone Corp. vice president and senior officer and group president, Americas Tire, for Bridgestone Americas Inc.

Mr. Asbun, an 8-year Bridgestone veteran, will assume Mr. Higgins' Americas Tire group president duties, which include responsibility for sales of all tire-led businesses throughout the Americas region, including the company's consumer and commercial tire businesses. Bridgestone describes this as its largest single business unit worldwide.

He continues as vice president and senior officer of Bridgestone Corp. while also becoming a member of the board of Bridgestone Americas. He will be based at Bridgestone Americas headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., and report to Paolo Ferrari, who became president, CEO and chief operating officer of Bridgestone Americas on Jan. 15.

In turn, Bridgestone is expanding Mr. Higgins' duties, naming him global chief digital strategic officer, vice chair of Bridgestone Americas and chair of Bridgestone Asia Pacific, in addition to his role as global chief business strategic officer for the parent company.

As the chief global officer responsible for business and digital strategy, Mr. Higgins — in partnership with the global executive team — "will play a critical role in shaping the company's future," outgoing Bridgestone Corp. CEO Masaaki Tsuya said, noting that Mr. Higgins' industry knowledge and "thought leadership" in mobility and solutions qualified him for this key role.

He will continue to be based in Nashville and report to incoming Bridgestone Corp. CEO Shu Ishibashi while also maintaining additional "matrixed dotted-line reporting structures" across global strategic business units.

In addition, Yoshikazu Shida, vice president and an officer of Bridgestone Corp., will succeed Mr. Asbun as CEO and COO of Bridgestone Asia Pacific and will remain chairman of Bridgestone (China) Investment Co. Ltd. and Bridgestone Taiwan Co. Ltd., based in Singapore.

This realignment is designed to create an organizational structure that can manage the company's drive toward "advanced mobility and sustainable solutions" while simultaneously creating leadership capacity to enhance our core business, Mr. Tsuya said.

"With these experienced, transformational leaders in place across our global businesses, we are confident in our ability to deliver results on our journey to Dan Totsu." Mr. Tsuya said, referring to the concept of being the "absolute and clear leader" embraced by leading Japanese corporations.

Mr. Tsuya is retiring from Bridgestone in March after a 44-year career with the tire maker. He will be succeeded by Mr. Ishibashi, currently vice chair and representative executive officer for the parent company.

Mr. Higgins joined Bridgestone in 2012 as president, consumer integrated tire division. He was chairman of Bridgestone Europe, Middle East and Africa from 2018 to 2019 and was promoted to his current roles as a corporate vice president and Bridgestone Americas group president in August 2019. Mr. Asbun joined the company in 2012 as president of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Latin America and was named COO of Bridgestone Asia Pacific in July 2018.

"Gabriel brought strong leadership, operational excellence and strategic vision for sustained profitable growth to our Asia Pacific businesses during his time there," Mr. Tsuya said. "We will now continue to leverage his expertise in the Americas where he will lead our largest global business."