Five months after naming TJ Higgins group president of Americas Tire Business for Bridgestone Americas Inc., the tiremaker has given Higgins a new job and named Gabriel Asbun as his successor. Higgins will remain based in Nashville, Tenn., and will serve as global chief digital strategic officer of Bridgestone Corp. He also retains his titles as vice president and senior officer for the corporation as well as global chief business strategic officer. Additionally, he will serve as vice chair of the board for Bridgestone Americas, and chairman of the board for Bridgestone Asia Pacific.
In his global chief roles, Higgins will report directly to incoming Bridgestone Corp. CEO and Representative Executive Officer Shu Ishibashi.
Since March 2019 Asbun has been the CEO for Bridgestone Asia Pacific, while also serving as chief operating officer . He's also a vice president and senior officer of Bridgestone Corp. He joined the company in 2012 as president of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Latin America. Before that, he spent a dozen years working for the Kellogg Co.
He will report to Paolo Ferrari. Asbun earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical-electrical engineering with a concentration in industrial engineering from the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico and his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is tri-lingual in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Yoshikazu Shida will replace Asbun as CEO and chief operating officer for Asia Pacific.
He also remains chairman of Bridgestone (China) Investment Co. Ltd. and Bridgestone Taiwan Co. Ltd. Shida will be based in Singapore and will report to Akihiro Eto, a member of the board and president, chief operating officer and executive officer of Bridgestone Corp. Bridgestone says the changes "reflect the company’s commitment to its global growth agenda."
The changes are effective at the end of March 2020:
“As we accelerate our company’s transformation into a global leader in advanced mobility and sustainable solutions, it’s important we create the right organizational structure to drive that change while simultaneously creating leadership capacity to enhance our core business,” says Masaaki Tsuya, Bridgestone Corp.’s chairman, global CEO and representative executive officer.
As announced in December, Tsuya will transition his duties as CEO and representative executive officer of Bridgestone Corp. to Shuichi Ishibashi, following approval at the Board of Directors’ meeting in late March
Tsuya adds, “Given my pending new role, my successor, Shuichi, and I have been working on these organizational changes collaboratively. 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.”
