Lear Corp. has hired John Absmeier as chief technology officer (CTO) to lead all aspects of the company’s technology and innovation efforts. Absmeier will join Lear on June 18, and report to Ray Scott, Lear’s president and CEO.
Absmeier has outstanding academic credentials and deep automotive technology, engineering and business experience. Most recently, Absmeier was responsible for the ADAS/Autonomous business unit as senior vice president and general manager at Harman International, and the vice president of smart machines at Samsung Electronics, where he led the acquisition of Harman by Samsung. He joined Samsung in 2015 from Delphi where he had a 19-year career including as founder and managing director of Delphi Labs at Silicon Valley and Autonomous Driving as well as being the business director for Electronic Controls and Electrification in Asia-Pacific for six years. He also held several roles of increasing responsibility at Delphi in the areas of hybrid and electric vehicles, fuel cells and telematics.
He joined Delphi after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and earning a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. Absmeier also has a Master of Science in mechanical engineering and a Master in Management Technology from the University of California at Berkeley.
“We are delighted to welcome John with his industry-leading technology and business expertise to Lear at a time when industry trends such as electrification, connectivity and mobility as well as the convergence of our two product segments are driving tremendous growth opportunities,” said Scott. “I am very confident that John will help us drive innovation and sales growth as well as communicate our unique capabilities to our customers and investors. This is an exciting time for our industry and our company, and Lear has never been in a better position to lead the way with new products and advanced technologies. The addition of John as our CTO will only accelerate our positive momentum,” concluded Scott.
