George Dettloff Named President of SKF Automotive North America

George Dettloff has been named President of SKF's Automotive Division, North America. Currently, he is President of Chicago Rawhide Americas, and he will continue in that capacity in addition to his new duties; CR Americas is part of SKF's Automotive Division. The new position involves overseeing all aspects of North American OEM and aftermarket operations for SKF bearings and seals. Coming to SKF as President of CR Americas in August 2000, Mr. Dettloff had been President of the Camcar Division of Textron Fastening Systems, and held senior management positions at Eaton and General Motors. At CR, he replaced interim President Bengt Nilsson, who retired after 37 years with the company. Mr. Dettloff reports to Tryggve Sthen, head of SKF Automotive worldwide. He will relocate from CR's headquarters in Elgin, Illinois to the Detroit area and operate out of SKF's North American Technical Center in Plymouth, Michigan. Mr Sthen said, "George Dettloff brings an excellent automotive background and leadership skills that will be key to guiding our business in North America at a time of tremendous challenge and opportunity in the industry. George brings a strong customer focus and an international reputation for introducing new products, improving financial performance and creating dynamic teams. Since joining SKF, he has done a tremendous job guiding our Chicago Rawhide operations and improving the productivity and profitability of our seals business. We look forward to his broader contributions in his expanded role." Several SKF-watchers told eBearing they believe this may define the new road to SKF's top management tiers, although automotive-related sales account for only 25% of SKF's overall sales. Mr. Sthen's predecessor as President of Automotive was Tom Johnstone, who replaced Sune Carlsson as President and CEO of SKF in January 2003. However, it should be noted that Mr. Carlsson came from the non-automotive side of SKF's business, with a strong background in power distribution and automation technologies via ASEA and ABB.