Tire industry veteran John Aben has joined Giti Tire (USA) Ltd. as the company’s new senior vice president.
Giti says Aben will work with the executive team to strengthen the position of the Giti Tire family of brands with distributors, dealers and retailers in the North American replacement tire market, as well as with original equipment manufacturers that serve North America.
“We’re thrilled that a well-respected tire industry veteran of John’s caliber is joining the Giti Tire team,” says Julianto Djajadi, executive vice president of business operations for Giti. “John will play a key role in helping us continue growing market share in North America and ensuring that our planned passenger and light truck tire manufacturing plant in South Carolina becomes a tremendous asset to our North American customers."
In February, the company broke ground on a $560 million passenger and light truck tire manufacturing facility in Chester County, South Carolina.
Aben has been in the tire business for 33 years, with experience in retail, commercial, wholesale and the manufacturing side of the industry. His past experience includes 16 years at National Tire Warehouse (NTW) and the Sears Tire Group. He has also held management positions with Winston Tire Company, Tire Centers LLC., and most recently spent 10 years at Nexen Tire America Inc. He left Nexen in April.
Giti says he's been an industry analyst in the areas of territory expansion, market identification, vendor relations, negotiating, key account retention, P&L management and team building/mentoring.