With Pedro Blanco, Friedhelm Kaufmann, Jed Soar, and Emiliano Bertolini, four experienced and highly dedicated colleagues joined the ATG team in Europe early this year. “Providing smarter choice and superior value for our customers is at the core of our philosophy. With experienced country managers, training specialists and field engineers all over Europe, we ensure that our customers are well taken care of and supplied with our innovative and high performance tyres for all kinds of off-highway operations. We extend a cordial welcome to our four new colleagues in ATG's European team”, says Peter Baur, President of Alliance Tire Europe BV.
Country Manager Iberia
Pedro Blanco joined ATG Europe as Country Manager Iberia, Europe, and will be based in Madrid, Spain. With about 26 years of experience, he knows the tyre business like the back of his hand. Pedro Blanco held his last position as Sales and Marketing Manager at Hankook Tire Spain, where he was responsible for managing distributors and channels as well as the Marketing Department with outstanding success. Prior to this assignment, Pedro also worked for Yokohama Iberia, starting from scratch with the training centre there, as well as for NCH Corporation and Michelin.
Country Manager Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Being a tyre professional since 1992, Friedhelm Kaufmann joined the ATG Europe team in March 2016. After leaving the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden, Germany, as graduate engineer (FH) in Mechanical Engineering, focusing on Automotive Engineering, various career steps in the tire industry followed. This included, amongst other responsibilities, pre-sales and technical support as well as different trainings at Goodyear GmbH & Co. KG, the responsibility as brand manager for Fulda Farm Tires at Fulda GmbH & Co. KG, and the function as Sales Manager for Goodyear and Fulda farm tyres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With such a strong experience, Friedhelm Kaufmann is very much at home in this market and looking forward to further strengthening ATG.
Head of Training, EU
Based at the ATG Europe office in the Netherlands, Jed Soar is ATG's newly appointed Head of Training. In his new function, Jed will be reporting to Ole Baek, Head of Marketing Europe. As qualified tyre major repair specialist, snap-on diagnostics and dyno-jet dynamometer specialist, Jeremy Soar's expertise is based on a total professional career of more than 27 years, primarily spent in the areas of Technical Management, Product Marketing, Business Strategy and Technical Training Course Production. Prior to joining ATG, Jed was Regional Field Engineering Manager for the Eastern Europe region at Bridgestone. Jed holds a diploma in Electrical Engineering & Business Management.
New field engineer for Italy
As field engineer for Italy, Emiliano Bertolini is ATG's interface for end-users, supporting and working in close cooperation with local distributors. The professional career of Emiliano includes 5 years as Sales Engineer at For Gomm snc, 8 years as Sales Engineer at Motorscan SpA, 6 years as Key Account Manager Farm & Industrial at Goodyear Dunlop tires Italia SpA, and also 3 years as OE2 Manager Farm at Univergomma SpA. With his diploma as Specialised Industrial Director in Electronics and Telecommunications from the Leonardo da' Vinci School in Parma, Emiliano mainly has a technical background, but also some sales experiences.
Angelo Noronha, Chief Sales Office at Alliance Tire Europe, comments: “Strengthening the European team is a key success factor to the European business for ATG. Building a sales structure for a sustainable robust business and a structure which is close to the market is vital to maintain and improve relationship with our customers. I am sure that with their expertise and knowledge, they will add value to the business relationships with customers in relevant countries.”
