Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has named a new president of North American tire operations and a new senior vice president of global operations and procurement.
Christopher Ball has been named senior vice president of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company and president of its North America Tire Operations (NATO) effective March 19.
Ball takes the helm of North American tire operations on the heels of the promotion of Phil Kortokrax to senior vice president of global operations and procurement. North America is Cooper’s largest market.
In his new role, Ball will be responsible for forming and executing strategies to grow Cooper’s business within the dealer-distributor network as well as in new sales channels. He will work closely with the company’s operations and technical teams in the U.S., which focus on the design and manufacture of Cooper tires in safe and sustainable facilities. Ball joins Cooper following a 15-year career with Whirlpool Corporation. He most recently served as global vice president for Whirpool’s KitchenAid small appliance business. Prior to that, Ball held leadership positions within Whirlpool’s laundry business. His career at Whirlpool also included sales and marketing leadership positions within multiple business segments. Ball has also worked with General Mills, Inc. serving in various sales leadership roles.
“We are pleased to welcome Chris to our executive leadership team,” said Brad Hughes, Cooper’s president and CEO. “He is a talented global executive with significant commercial experience, and the energy and demonstrated leadership capabilities to help us achieve our strategic growth objectives.”
As senior vice president of global operations and procurement, Kortokrax, who has been with Cooper for nearly three decades, is responsible for overseeing the company’s global manufacturing operations, which includes eight tire manufacturing plants on three continents, as well as global procurement. He is also responsible for Cooper’s global original equipment (OE) and worldwide truck and bus radial (TBR) tire businesses.
“During his long tenure with Cooper, Phil has served in many different functional areas within the company and brings deep expertise to his new role,” Hughes said. “With this promotion, he returns to lead manufacturing, but this time on a global scale in recognition of the importance of our worldwide production footprint. We look forward to his contributions as we work to continuously improve product quality, maintain our focus on safety, and continue to enhance efficiencies at our plants around the world.”
Kortokrax joined Cooper in 1990 as a member of its IT team, moved into plant operations in 1994. By 2003, he progressed to the position of Director of Internal Audit. He went on to serve as General Manager of the Mickey Thompson business, and in 2008, moved to NATO as vice president of dealer channel sales. Three years later, he became vice president of strategic marketing and planning, and in 2012, he was appointed vice president, of manufacturing and supply chain for North America, a post he held until being named to the NATO leadership role in 2015.
