Jack E. Thompson of DaimlerChrysler Installed as 2003 President of Society of Automotive Engineers International

TROY, Mich., March 18 -- Dr. Jack E. Thompson, Director of Computer Aided Engineering and Concept Development for DaimlerChrysler Corporation, was duly sworn in as the 2003 President of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International) in an official ceremony recently.

Dr. Thompson accepted the President's gavel from outgoing 2002 President S. M. Shahed at the conclusion of the SAE Board of Director's meeting in Detroit, Michigan, on March 7, 2003. The Board meeting came at the conclusion of SAE's successful 2003 World Congress, the world's largest automotive technology conference and exhibition.

Thompson was selected by the Society's 66-member Annual Nominating Committee in balloting conducted during the 2002 World Congress meeting last March. He takes over the highest post of the nearly 84,000 member organization, a technical society that provides the mobility engineering community worldwide with technical information and professional development through its many publications, meetings, courses, and technical standards.

Dr. Thompson has worked for DaimlerChrysler for over 38 years. In his current position, he directs computer-aided-engineering and concept development for all Chrysler Product Teams. His group includes the corporate initiative to apply Knowledge Based Engineering to the design process. He founded and is Executive Sponsor of Chrysler's "Engineering Book of Knowledge" and served as part of the strategy team that created the Chrysler Development System.

A graduate of the University of New Mexico (BSME), Dr. Thompson also holds an MS from Stanford University, an MBA from Michigan State University, and a Doctorate of Engineering from the University of Detroit. An SAE fellow and longstanding member, Thompson is the author or co-author of seven SAE papers on vehicle crash and NVH analysis and new CAD methods. He has served in SAE as chairman of the Detroit Section Junior Activity, chairman of the National Automobile Body Activity and Chairman of the Motor Vehicle Council. In 1996, he was elected to the SAE Board of Directors and in 2001 was named to the SAE Foundation Board of Trustees. He served on the Mobility Technology Planning Forum (MTPF) I & II, the Strategic Planning Committee and as chairman of the Quality Improvement Committee. He was selected as an SAE Fellow in 1999. He received the Engineering Society of Detroit's Outstanding Young Engineer Award in 1968 and the Safety Award for Engineering Excellence from the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1980.

Thompson is active in his church as a Deacon and Choir Director and restores classic cars. He and his wife of 38 years, Dawn, live in Clarkston, Michigan and have three grown children, David, Dan and Bethany.

SAE is a non-profit engineering and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity. Nearly 84,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles, including automobiles, aircraft, aerospace craft, trucks, buses, marine, rail and transit machinery. This information is disseminated through SAE meetings, books, electronic products and databases, technical papers, standards, reports, and professional development programs.