Heath Holtz is moving from his position of director of Logistics at Nissan North America in July this year to take up a new leadership role in the Global Supply Chain Management department for the company in Japan. He will report to Yasuyuki Andoh, divisional general manager for Global SCM.
Holtz will be working in the same organisation as Trevor Mann, senior vice president in Global SCM, who earlier this year moved to Japan to replace John Martin, who has returned to Europe to be promoted to senior vice president of SCM and manufacturing at Nissan Europe.
Holtz, whose Nissan career began in vehicle operations, has been in his current role since January 2010, where he has logistics responsibility in the US for production parts, export, service parts and finished vehicles. He was previously senior manager/RSAM Americas Logistics for the carmaker's US division and has held a number of other senior management positions in vehicle logistics and production purchasing.
Holtz will be replaced by Chris Styles, currently director of Purchasing for Nissan Mexicana, who will report to Mike Steck, vice president, Supply Chain Management, Nissan Americas. Previous to his current role Styles was director of Logistics, IT/IS and Aftermarket/Accessory Parts at Nissan North America. He joined Nissan in 2002 and has held a variety of positions in Purchasing and Logistics in addition to his most recent assignment in Mexico.
The new assignments for Holtz and Styles are part of wide-ranging senior management changes recently announced at Nissan. These include the promotion of Anderson Ramos, currently manager of Logistics at Nissan Brazil, to the position of director of Logistics. He will report to both Gerardo De La Torre, vice president, monozukuri, Nissan Brazil, and Mike Steck.
Elsewhere, Vincent Valdmann, currently director at the Vehicle Purchasing department at Renault Nissan Purchasing Organisation (RNPO), has been named director, Supplier Quality Assurance, succeeding Dana Hargitt, who is moving to a new position as vice president, Components Engineering at Nissan Technical Center North America. Valdmann will continue to report to Rebecca Vest, vice president, Purchasing, RNPO and Nissan Americas.
Jose Munoz, currently president and managing director, Nissan Mexicana, has been named senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Latin America and Customer Quality and Dealer Network Development for the Americas. He will be based in Franklin, Tennessee in the US.
Bryan Burkardt has been appointed director of outbound logistics for North America at General Motors. He replaces Vicki Streukens who has moved to take up a new role as director of logistics, customer care and aftersales. Burkardt was previously supply chain director for GM and has worked with the company since 2003, having previously worked for Saturn.
As reported last month, Streukens had been director of vehicle logistics since 2006, having previously served in a variety of roles, including at GM's service parts operations as supervisor of plant operations, senior project engineer, superintendent of materials, and director of logistics and distribution. In 2005 she transferred to GM global supply chain as director of planning, and then director of intercontinental logistics.
Scott Kunselman is the new senior vice president, Purchasing and Supplier Quality at Chrysler. He took the role earlier this month following the retirement of Dan Knott who sadly passed away last Sunday (read more here). Kunselman has been with the carmaker since 1985 and was most recently senior vice president - Engineering, a role he took up in June 2009.
In that role he oversaw all systems and component engineering, vehicle line platform programmes, international engineering, advance vehicle development and innovation, powertrain product engineering, product technical planning and regulatory affairs.
He started his career at Chrysler in product engineering at the Chrysler Institute of Engineering.
Kunselman is now responsible for all purchasing and supplier quality activities, including both product-related components and indirect suppliers and services.
Comprehensive Logistics, which provides custom-engineered supply chain management solutions to OEMs including Ford and GM, has appointed Trish Zarik, as vice president of Business Development, Automotive.
Zarik will be responsible for vehicle manufacturer and tier one automotive supplier account development, sales and service.
Most recently she served as vice president Business Development and Marketing for the transport and logistics provider, Pasha Group, where she held key account responsibilities managing initiatives for Chrysler, Ford, GM, Volkswagen, Lotus and Hino Trucks.
"We are very fortunate to have a leader with Trish's experience join our team. Her deep understanding of the automotive sector, its expectations and standards aligns perfectly with the expertise and value Comprehensive has been delivering to automotive customers for many years," said Brian Hume, senior vice president and general manager for Comprehensive.
From 1986 to 2001 Zarik held executive management positions with Eagle Logistics, Circle International and Automotive Logistics Services, now Ceva Logistics. She is a graduate of the Chrysler Corporation Operating System and is a licensed US Customs Broker.
