Long-time tire industry PR pro Mike Fay is hanging up his typewriter ribbon at the close of this month. Known Mike for a long time, and he is one of the finest men I have met in this industry. Got to know him back in the day when he was a PR manager for Firestone; he was one of the unlucky guys who faced a vicious press corps each day during the infamous Firestone 500 debacle.
He later moved on to Smithers Scientific Services, where he has served as PR manager and editor of the daily/weekly Smithers Report. Before the Internet age, the Smithers Report was THE daily digest of important tire industry news from all over the globe. Mike is turning the mouse over to Dan Hockensmith, who takes over as editor on Oct. 31. We all wish Mike the very best in this next phase of his career!
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You just can’t keep a good man down! And that man – Abraham Hengyucius (aka Abe Hengyucius, or Abraham Zhang, or Hengyu Zhang) – is still trying to find some land in Washington State upon which to build a tire plant. Or something. Right now, that part isn’t clear.
What is clear is that Abe made an unsolicited offer for a parcel of land at the Port of Tacoma, land owned by a gentleman who lives in Southern California and was smart enough to do some deep due diligence. This investigation was especially helpful after he discovered that the “corporation” Abe was representing was, in fact, no corporation at all. Wonder where we’ve heard that before?
The landowner’s background check included Tire Review’s
extensive coverage of Abe and his “Washington Tire Corp.”
We heard, too, that Abe is also busy suing the Port of Ephrata in Washington and its boss Mike Wren for breach of contract. Apparently Abe felt slighted when the government body canceled its land sale agreement when it discovered that Abe wasn’t really Abe, and that WTC wasn’t really a corporation, and that…well, if you want all of the bloody details, please feel free to peruse our website and some of my
past blog postings.
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Goodyear is getting that much closer to its dream headquarters, and it found a really cool way to share that excitement with employees. On Oct. 21, the tiremaker invited employees to sign the last beam that will be installed in the superstructure of the new building, and will be located over the main lobby. Once the building is done – in 2013 by currently schedules – the 1,500-pounder will be exposed to visitors below so that all of the signatures will be visible.