Goodyear Appoints de Bok President of its European Union Business

AKRON, Ohio, Sept. 16 -- Goodyear Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert J. Keegan announced today the appointment of Arthur de Bok, 43, as president of the company's European Union business. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the business is Goodyear's largest outside of North America with 2004 sales revenues of $4.5 billion.

Previously vice president of consumer tires for the European Union business, de Bok has a marketing background that includes several key European assignments for Procter & Gamble Company. He had held positions of increasing responsibility with P&G when he joined Goodyear in January 2002 as vice president of marketing for the EU business. When the business restructured into product business units in mid-2003 de Bok was promoted to vice president of the consumer tire business.

"Arthur came to us with a rich background in consumer goods marketing and took our European marketing activities to a new level before being given overall responsibility for Consumer Tires," Keegan said. "His marketing focus, leadership and business acumen have been critical in the business and the company's evolution to becoming a market driven company."

Keegan said de Bok's strong leadership has been critical to the success of the consumer business where he has built a strong, multi-functional team that has delivered a stream of innovative and differentiated products to the marketplace.

A graduate of Erasmus University in his native Netherlands, de Bok holds a Master's Degree in law. de Bok's replacement will be named later.

Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries around the world. Goodyear employs more than 75,000 people worldwide.