Bridgestone Names President of North America
Bridgestone Americas Inc. has named Robert Johnson group president, North America, while Scott Damon will continue as CEO of Bridgestone West.
The roles have been "decoupled ... to provide increased clarity of scope and focus on delivering our business goals," according to Bridgestone officials.
In addition to CEO of Bridgestone West, Damon held the title of group president, Bridgestone Americas.
Johnson's new position will include "leadership of North America Core Tire" and he will have "end-to-end ownership and accountability for the full North America profit and loss."
In a related move, Wade Sempkowski has been named Bridgesone West chief financial officer (CFO), succeeding Johnson in that role.
"Robert and Wade are experienced leaders with a strong understanding of our business, our customers and the priorities ahead,” says Damon. “Robert brings a powerful combination of financial, operational and customer-facing leadership to the North America region and Wade brings deep finance expertise to the West CFO role.”
Johnson joined Bridgestone in 2016 as executive director of finance for Bridgestone Retail Operations, later taking on the same role for Bridgestone Americas’ Integrated Consumer Group. In 2020, he was promoted to vice president of finance for the company's Americas Tire Group and marketing function and in 2021, became vice president of stores for Bridgestone Retail Operations. He was then named CFO for Bridgestone West in May 2024. Before joining Bridgestone, Johnson held senior finance and operations roles at Advance Auto Parts, Best Buy and Lifepoint Health.
Sempkowski joined Bridgestone Americas in 2019 as director of FP&A and was promoted in 2021 to executive director of finance. In 2022, he became vice president of finance, Bridgestone Americas, supporting the company’s operations, financial discipline and growth priorities. Since 2022, he has also served on the board of directors for TireHub LLC, Bridgestone's joint venture with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Prior to joining Bridgestone, Sempkowski held sales analytics, reporting and finance roles at Mars Petcare and Southern Land Co.
Both appointments take effect on May 1, 2026.