The board of directors of Tower International Inc., a global manufacturer of engineered automotive structural metal components and assemblies, announced today that Thomas “Tony” Brown will succeed the current chairman, Nicholas “Nick” Chabraja, who plans to retire from the board following the company’s annual meeting of shareholders in April.
Chabraja, 74, has served as chairman since Tower’s Initial Public Offering in 2010. He joined the board after an illustrious career at General Dynamics, where he was chairman from 1997 to 2010 and CEO from 1997 to 2009.
“On behalf of the Tower board and our colleagues, we thank Nick for guiding Tower’s transformation and success over the past six-plus years,” said Tower CEO Jim Gouin.
“It has been a pleasure serving on the Tower board and working with the management team to help create shareholder value. Tony’s substantial automotive industry knowledge and experience on the boards of the 3M Co. and ConAgra Foods will serve him and Tower shareholders well as he assumes the role of chairman,” said Chabraja.
The board unanimously appointed Brown to succeed Chabraja as non-executive chairman. Brown, 60, has been a Tower director since 2014. He retired from Ford Motor Co. in 2013, after 14 years of service in various leadership positions, including Ford’s group vice president, global purchasing, with responsibility for approximately $90 billion of production and non-production procurement. From 1997 to 1999, he served in leadership positions at United Technologies Corp., including its vice president, supply management.
