Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) has named Bridget Neal as president, off-the-road (OTR), Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO), effective Aug. 14. Neal succeeds Taylor Cole, who recently was named president of Firestone Building Products LLC.

“Bridget has developed extensive knowledge of the commercial tire business across her 15-year career with Bridgestone,” said Kurt Danielson, president, commercial group, U.S. and Canada, BATO. “She has held a number of leadership roles in critical business areas, including supply and demand planning, logistics, marketing and more. Her business acumen, combined with the great relationships she has built with our OTR customers domestically and globally, makes her incredibly well-suited for this important role.”

As president, Neal will lead all aspects of the Bridgestone OTR tire business in North America, including strategic planning, product and technology introductions, sales and engineering. She will be responsible for aligning the company’s go-to-market strategies with the broader commercial portfolio, while also helping drive coordination for the Bridgestone OTR business globally. In addition, Neal will continue to advance the company’s efforts to developtechnology solutions that track tire performance and help OTR customers improve their productivity and profitability.

Neal joined Bridgestone in August 2002 as a supply planning and sourcing engineer. During her tenure, she has held roles of increasing responsibility within the company’s commercial tire business, including commercial supply chain manager; manager of distribution programs for Bridgestone Bandag retread systems; account executive for OE commercial truck and bus tires; and general manager of original equipment and government sales for the truck and bus business. She was promoted to her current position as director, OTR tire sales, in 2015.

Neal earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.