Jean-Claude Kihn, senior vice president and chief technical officer, will take over as senior vice president and managing director of Goodyear Brazil, effective December 3. He will succeed Filipe Affonso Ferreira, who is leaving the company to pursue other career opportunities.

“In order to continue to drive profitable growth in Brazil for Goodyear and our customers, I have selected and am dedicating Jean-Claude Kihn, a valued member of Goodyear’s executive leadership team, to this role,” said Chairman and CEO Rich Kramer. “As chief technical officer since 2008, Jean-Claude has been instrumental in driving Goodyear’s innovation strategy, and it is our intent that he will return to that role following this assignment in Brazil.”

Kramer described Kihn as the ideal choice for the Brazil position because of his extensive experience in the industry, strong alignment with our Strategy Roadmap, customer centricity and deep knowledge of our new product pipeline.

Joe Zekoski, vice president of global product development and Innovation Center operations, will serve as interim chief technical officer. Zekoski, who has more than 30 years of technology experience at Goodyear, has been a senior member of Kihn’s leadership team over the past five years.

“We have the best innovation process in the industry, and we are committed to maintaining our leadership position in this critical area,” said Kramer. “I am confident in Joe’s ability to drive our technology agenda as interim CTO.”

“I am excited to have Jean-Claude join our Latin America leadership team,” said Jaime Szulc, president of the Latin America region. “In his role as chief technical officer, he has been a great partner to me and the entire LAT team. He brings a breadth of knowledge that will be an asset to all of us.”

Since joining Goodyear in 1988, Kihn has held a variety of roles around the world, including in the Latin America business. He was managing director of the Peru business from 2003 to 2005, and from 2000-2002, he served as director of tire technology – Latin America. He also was part of Goodyear’s commercial truck tire development team for Latin America from 1994 to 1996.

“During my Latin American assignments, I spent considerable time in Brazil – understanding the products, meeting with customers, visiting the Americana factory and meeting with colleagues at the regional headquarters,” said Kihn. “I look forward to building on the current Brazil business strategy so that we are best positioned to support customer growth and competitiveness.Jean-Claude Kihn, senior vice president and chief technical officer, will take over as senior vice president and managing director of Goodyear Brazil, effective December 3. He will succeed Filipe Affonso Ferreira, who is leaving the company to pursue other career opportunities.