Brent Copeland has been named plant manager of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Lawton, Okla., passenger tire manufacturing plant. He replaces Billy Taylor, who took over as manager of the company's Fayetteville, N.C., consumer tire plant earlier this year.
Prior to his appointment, Copeland was president of Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems LLC. He was named to that post in November 2003.
Succeeding Copeland as Wingfoot president is Phillip Kane, who had been senior director of consumer channel sales for Goodyear's North American Tire (NAT) business unit since December 2008.
Copeland has been at Goodyear for 38 years. He was part of the team that started up the Lawton plant in the late 1970s, and worked there until 1983.
"Lawton is a very important supplier to the NAT consumer business," says Patrick Hurley, vice president of strategic manufacturing for NAT. "Brent is an experienced leader, and is the right person to join the already experienced team in Lawton as they guide the plant through its multi-phase modernization project."
The Lawton facility has the capacity to produce 65,000 passenger tires a day, according to Modern Tire Dealer's 2010 Facts Issue. It is by far Goodyear's largest consumer tire plant in North America.
Kane served as director of NAT’s consumer wholesale distribution channel for more than three years prior to being named senior director of consumer channel sales. He joined Goodyear in 2004 as director of strategic initiatives. He started his career in a family business, Grande Truck Center.
