Hawtal Whiting Holdings plc Appoints Chief Executive Officer
9 February 2000
Hawtal Whiting Holdings plc Appoints Chief Executive Officer
TROY, Mich.--Feb. 9, 2000--Hawtal Whiting Holdings plc, the automotive design and engineering group, announces the appointment of Andrew G. Tempest as Group Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. This decision was made in support of Hawtal Whiting's globalization strategy. Our global network currently consists of 17 facilities in 8 countries.John Whitecross, Chairman, said:
"We must think globally and act locally with our customers. This is a strategic appointment to lead Hawtal Whiting in the new millennium. It ensures we are able to surpass our customers' expectations by delivering fast-to-market design, creating innovative derivatives off global platforms. Together with our alliance partners, we bring new technology and processes to the highly competitive automotive groups around the world."
Andrew Tempest is promoted to group Chief Executive Officer after successfully leading Hawtal Whiting's North American operations, as President, to a 50% growth during 1999 and achieving significantly enhanced performance for the group. Part of this success has been building relationships and providing the Tier 1 supplier base with engineering support as they take full design responsibility from the OEM's. This North American initiative is now developing in Europe. Andrew Tempest was also responsible for opening and developing the Brazilian and Mexican markets for Hawtal Whiting.
Andrew Tempest stated:
"I am delighted to be given the opportunity to steer Hawtal Whiting to meet the new challenges in servicing the global automakers and their supply base. My four years in Detroit and previous experience with Group Lotus around the world has given me a unique insight and experience to develop our global strategy, while still understanding local requirements. Our customers' demands to cost-effective, fast-to-market niche vehicles, allowing maximum product differentiation, are one of today's challenges that Hawtal Whiting is very well positioned to deliver."
Hawtal Whiting has recently signed alliances with several technology companies to provide the OEM's with efficient solutions using the latest technological development.
Andrew Tempest further added:
"Over the past two years, we have developed an infrastructure to compete on a global basis. We have a presence in every country where vehicle engineering from global platforms is undertaken, and all our facilities are linked with the latest high-speed communication technology. With our strong team of 1,000 engineers world-wide, we need to coordinate global platform work to ensure it is completed in the most cost-effective location in harmony with the OEM's plans."