Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Names Christopher Ball President, North America Tire Operations; Phil Kortokrax Promoted to Seni...
March 05 2018 - 08:15AM
Business Wire
Christopher Ball has been named Senior Vice President of Cooper
Tire & Rubber Company & President of North America Tire
Operations (NATO) effective March 19. He will report to Brad
Hughes, President & Chief Executive Officer. Ball assumes this
role following the promotion of Phil Kortokrax to the position of
Senior Vice President, Global Operations & Procurement.
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Christopher Ball has been named Senior
Vice President of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company & President
of North America Tire Operations. (Photo: Business Wire)
North America is Cooper’s largest market. In his new role, Ball
will be responsible for formulating and driving execution of
strategic plans to grow Cooper’s business within the
dealer-distributor network as well as in new sales channels. He
will closely partner with the company’s operations and technical
teams in the U.S., which focus on the design and manufacture of
quality tires in safe and sustainable facilities, including four
manufacturing plants, as well as supply chain operations.
Ball joins Cooper following a 15-year career with Whirlpool
Corporation, a global appliance leader with annual revenue of $20.7
billion and iconic brands such as Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid and
Jenn-Air. Most recently, he served as Global Vice President for the
company’s KitchenAid small appliance business. Prior to that, Ball
held leadership positions within Whirlpool’s Laundry business,
beginning as Senior Director of the Europe, Middle East and Africa
(EMEA) Laundry team, a role for which he was based in Comerio,
Italy. He was later promoted to General Manager of the North
America Laundry unit, Whirlpool’s largest business. His career at
Whirlpool also included sales and marketing leadership positions of
increasing responsibility within multiple business segments. Before
joining Whirlpool, Ball was with General Mills, Inc. for two years,
serving in sales leadership roles.
“We are pleased to welcome Chris to our executive leadership
team,” said Hughes. “He is a talented global executive with
significant commercial experience, and the energy and demonstrated
leadership capabilities to help us achieve our strategic growth
objectives.”
Ball holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University’s Kelley
School of Business and a Master of Business Administration (MBA)
from the executive master’s program at Northwestern University’s
Kellogg School of Management. He serves on the Dean’s Council of
the Kelley School of Business.
As Senior Vice President, Global Operations & Procurement,
Kortokrax, who has been with Cooper for nearly three decades, is
responsible for overseeing the company’s global manufacturing
operations, which includes eight tire manufacturing plants on three
continents, as well as global procurement. He is also responsible
for Cooper’s emerging global original equipment (OE) and worldwide
truck and bus radial (TBR) tire businesses.
“During his long tenure with Cooper, Phil has served in many
different functional areas within the company and brings deep
expertise to his new role. With this promotion, he returns to lead
manufacturing, but this time on a global scale in recognition of
the importance of our worldwide production footprint. We look
forward to his contributions as we work to continuously improve
product quality, maintain our focus on safety, and continue to
enhance efficiencies at our plants around the world,” Hughes
said.
Kortokrax joined Cooper in 1990 as a member of the Information
Technology team, moved into plant operations in 1994, and by 2003,
progressed to the position of Director—Internal Audit. He went on
to serve as General Manager of the Mickey Thompson business, and in
2008, moved to NATO as Vice President—Dealer Channel Sales. Three
years later, he was made Vice President—Strategic Marketing &
Planning, and in 2012, he was appointed Vice President,
Manufacturing and Supply Chain—North America Tire Operations, a
post he held until being named to the NATO leadership role in
2015.
Kortokrax holds a bachelor’s degree in business systems analysis
from the University of Findlay (Ohio), and a Master of Business
Administration (MBA) from the University of Toledo (Ohio).
About Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: CTB) is the parent
company of a global family of companies that specializes in the
design, manufacture, marketing and sale of passenger car, light
truck, medium truck, motorcycle and racing tires. Cooper’s
headquarters is in Findlay, Ohio, with manufacturing, sales,
distribution, technical and design operations within its family of
companies located in more than one dozen countries around the
world. For more information on Cooper, visit www.coopertire.com,
www.facebook.com/coopertire or www.twitter.com/coopertire.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180305005627/en/
Cooper Tire & Rubber CompanyAnne Roman,
419-429-7189alroman@coopertire.com
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