Navistar appoints new CEO and president

Carlbaum, who has been leading post-merger management of Navistar for TRATON GROUP since April, chosen to take over role.

A new CEO and president has been announced for the Navistar International Corp. following the planned retirement of Persio Lisboa, who has served in that role since July 2020.

Mathias Carlbaum, previously the executive vice president for commercial operations at Scania CV AB, will be replacing Lisboa.

Lisboa has been with Navistar for 35 years and is credited with returning Navistar to profitability and launching and executing a strategy called Navistar 4.0, according to a news release from Navistar.

Carlbaum started in his new role as CEO and President of Navistar on Wednesday. Previously he had a long management career at Scania, a global provider of transport solutions.

Carlbaum had left his role at Scania in March and since April has been leading the post-merger management of Navistar on behalf of the TRATON GROUP.

The $3.7 billion merger of Navistar by Volkswagen’s truck unit the TRATON GROUP was officially closed in July of this year.

Navistar is a major employer in Clark County and has a manufacturing facility in Springfield, which builds medium-duty trucks as well as cutaway vans for General Motors.

“Mathias Carlbaum is an internationally experienced manager with the right skills and mindset to lead Navistar into this new era as part of TRATON GROUP. I am welcoming Mathias in his new responsibility. A great thanks goes to Persio Lisboa for his great support before, during and after the merger,” said TRATON’s CEO and member of Navistar’s Board of Directors Matthias Gründler.

To reflect the existing corporate governance of other TRATON GROUP companies, Navistar’s Board of Directors appointed an Executive Board, that was effective as of Wednesday.

Alongside CEO Carlbaum, the executive board will be made up of five other members. That information was outlined in a recent news release from Navistar.

Walter G. Borst continues to be Chief Financial Officer until he transitions his role to Do Young Kim on Jan. 1. It is intended that Borst will continue to serve as a member of Navistar’s Board of Directors thereafter.

In his current function, Kim had been the project lead for TRATON’s IPO and the merger with Navistar.

Michael Grahe, formerly CTO of the TRATON GROUP, will head Operations, which covers the areas of product development and procurement.

Current President of Operations, Phil Christman, will remain at Navistar until March 2022 to oversee Mexico and Brazil, as well as transition related tasks and continue reporting to the CEO.

Donna G. Dorsey will retain responsibility for People & Culture; Friedrich W. Baumann remains responsible for Sales, Marketing & Aftersales. Mark Hernandez will be also appointed to the Executive Board, remaining responsible for Manufacturing.

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