Tier One supplier Visteon on Monday said president and CEO Timothy Leuliette would “transition out of the company by the end of 2015” once a successor had been named.
In a statement, the supplier said its board had asked executive search firm Spencer Stuart to evaluate candidates to succeed Leuliette.
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“From a collection of many businesses and legacy issues, over the last 30 months Visteon has become a focused electronics company, well-positioned in its segment and prepared for the next chapter,” the statement said.
Leuliette said: “Given the excellent progress we have made to focus and streamline the company, including the pending sale of our 70% ownership stake in HVCC, I believe now is the right time to transition to the next generation of leadership.
“It is now time for a different leader with different skills to transform Visteon into an even more powerful electronics business.”
Under Leuliette’s tenure, Visteon has been streamlined through a series of transactions and internal restructurings from a multi-business supplier to company strongly focused on electronics.
This included acquiring the electronics business of Johnson Control to create a US$3bn global business.
Visteon also sold the interiors business of its Yanfeng joint venture to HASCO, while acquiring control of the JV’s automotive electronics business; sold its lighting division to India’s Varroc Group, sold a large portion of its global interiors business to Reydel Automotive Holdings held by Cerberus Capital Management, merged its historical climate business into its 70%-owned Korea climate business, Halla Climate Control Corporation, creating Halla Visteon Climate Control Corporation; acquired Cooper Standard’s thermal and emissions product line, expanding the capabilities of HVCC in the growing powertrain thermal systems area; and, most recently, announced the pending sale of the 70% HVCC stake to an affiliate of Korean private equity firm Hahn & Company for $3.6bn.
“On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Tim for his vision, leadership and outstanding contributions to Visteon since becoming president and CEO in 2012,” said chairman Francis Scricco.
“Tim’s transactional experience was critical to our company’s dynamic transformation, which has increased Visteon’s stock price 2.5 times and created about $2.5bn of shareholder value. In addition, the strategy was professionally executed and completed almost a year ahead of schedule.”
