TOKYO – Bridgestone Corp. is reorganizing its global management structure along an East-West configuration, with Bridgestone Americas Inc. President and CEO Paolo Ferrari taking over responsibility for Europe as part of becoming CEO of Bridgestone West.
The initiative is intended to support Bridgestone's strategy to improve earnings, increase resilience and enhance its ability to leverage new opportunities, the company said following an Oct. 19 board of directors meeting.
Under the revamped global structure, the global management setup will be divided into two entities: Bridgestone West, comprising the Americas and Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Bridgestone East, covering the firm's Japan tire business’ diversified and exploratory business; global mining, industrial, construction and aviation tire solutions; and Asia-Pacific, including China and India.
The new structure takes effect Jan. 1, 2024.
Bridgestone “will continue striving to boost corporate value based on the reinforcement of its new global management structure,” Shu Ishibashi, global CEO and representative executive officer, Bridgestone Corp., said.
Focused on “execution and delivering results,” Bridgestone’s management structure will be under the overall supervision of a global CEO and two joint global chief operating officers.
Bridgestone East will be led by Masahiro Higashi as CEO; he also will hold the position of chief administration officer.
Ferrari will serve as chief digital transformation officer in addition to his Bridgestone West duties.
There will also be 28 local management areas, helping the operations in terms of region, market characteristics and operations.
Among them are Scott Damon, currently COO Bridgestone Americas, serving as group vice president and president of Bridgestone West mobility solutions.
European CEO and president Laurent Dartoux will become group vice president and president of EMEA, as well as leading sustainability efforts.
European COO Emilio Tiberio will become group vice president and chief technology officer of Bridgestone West.
Nobuyuki Tamura will take over the specialty tires unit and head of global OE, while Yuji Mochizuki will serve as tire production and internal manufacturing head of Bridgestone East.
Bridgestone is the world's No. 2 tire maker with estimated global tire sales of $26.6 billion, according to Tire Business data.
