OSLO, Norway – William Nowicke has joined the THINK senior leadership team as vice president, global operations, effective immediately. He comes to THINK’s headquarters in Oslo with a background of more than 15 years in senior auto industry executive leadership and turn-around assignments.

Prior to joining THINK this month, Nowicke was a vice president at the global turn-around, restructuring and business advisory firm, AlixPartners LLP headquartered in Southfield, Mich. His responsibilities included the restructuring and turn-around of several manufacturing operations within the automotive, consumer products, aerospace and defense industries. Nowicke has also held several senior level executive positions within manufacturing and manufacturing engineering operations across Chrysler Corp. in the U.S.

At THINK, he will be responsible for developing the company’s expanding global operations. THINK recently commenced production in the U.S. with a new assembly facility in Elkhart County, Ind., which completed its first vehicles this month. The company also manufactures vehicles for Europe with production partner Valmet Automotive in Finland, and operations in Asia are being developed with THINK’s strategic partner in Japan, Itochu. New, state-of-the-art product development and engineering facilities will open at the company’s headquarters in Oslo in 2011.

“William joins us at a time of great operational growth at THINK,” said CEO Barry Engle. “We are doubling our manufacturing capabilities across two continents. We’re also growing our engineering facilities to capitalize on business-to-business opportunities resulting from new generations of THINK EV drivetrain technology coming to market. His experience in global automotive operations and development will prove invaluable in these very busy and exciting times.”

Nowicke added, “This is a new industry presenting new challenges all of its own, and I am delighted to be joining a company at the very heart of this fascinating sector. THINK is a leader in its field, particularly from a technical perspective, and this is what I look forward to developing even further, starting from our well-established European base and expanding into new EV territories around the world.”