Gentex Corp., a supplier of digital vision, connected car, dimmable glass and fire protection technologies, has added new leadership personnel as part of an internal reorganization effort designed to reflect the company’s growing automotive technology portfolio and better support its ongoing new market development efforts.
Specifically, Gentex says it has assigned executive personnel to lead newly created product development teams responsible for not only cultivating new automotive technologies, but also expanding the company’s core competencies into new markets.
“The purpose of our new structure is to help manage the expansion of our automotive footprint while looking to leverage our core technologies into new markets,” said Gentex President and CEO Steve Downing. “We’re rooted in automotive, but we’re committed to extending our capabilities into new technologies and additional industries, and I am confident that this new leadership team and structure will help us accomplish this goal.”
To support this initiative, Brian Brackenbury has been named director of connected products, interior cameras and biometrics. He joined Gentex from Visteon in 2015 and has more than 27 years of experience in automotive electronics and vehicle connectivity. Brackenbury has spent the past several years coordinating Gentex’s advanced product and business development efforts, helping spearhead new technologies such as HomeLink Connect and Integrated Toll Module.
Brad Bosma has been named vice president of vision systems and dimmable glass. His Gentex career spans more than 28 years, having held various positions in engineering, program management and executive leadership. Most recently, Bosma was vice president of the company’s European operations, where he is credited with helping establish and grow much of Gentex’s European business.
To better coordinate sales efforts internationally, Gentex has promoted Matt Chiodo to vice president of sales. Chiodo has been with the company for nearly 18 years, serving in a variety of sales leadership roles with responsibility for domestic and Asian automakers. Chiodo also has been instrumental in Gentex’s business development efforts, helping to forge relationships with key technical partners for vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies and other core products.
To help expand Gentex’s core technologies into new industries, the company recently hired Robert Vance as vice president of new markets. Vance is responsible for the strategic development of new technologies, partnerships and markets that leverage the company’s core competencies. He also will manage Gentex’s Fire Protection division. Vance worked for Gentex from 2005 to 2011 as vice president of business development – Japan Automakers, but most recently worked as vice president of Innotec Corp., where he was responsible for strategic business, product, market and partner development. He also spent 10 years with Johnson Controls in a variety of positions in finance, operations and business management.
Gentex is perhaps best known for automatic-dimming rearview mirrors, which detect headlight glare from trailing vehicles and automatically darken to the precise level necessary to protect driver vision. But approximately 50 percent of the company’s revenue comes from additional electronic features such as displays, automotive camera systems, vehicle-to-home automation controls, ADAS components and other customized electronic solutions designed to meet unique customer applications.
“Our product portfolio requires us to be highly vertically integrated,” said Downing. “Consequently, Gentex has a unique skill set, which includes microelectronics, vision systems and camera development, software design, chemical development, glass processing and coatings and automated assembly. Our goal is to continually add new automotive features while aggressively pursuing new markets in which we can leverage these competencies.”
