Features Automotive

Auto shopping will always be among the more personal pursuits, a would-be buyer likely visiting several dealerships, test-driving vehicles and conversing at length with the sales rep before agreeing to a purchase. Shermin Ladha Pelinski doesn’t see that part changing, but recognizes that COVID-19 has had lasting effects on the auto business, as well as […]

So, Lance Follett is asked: Is solving global warming and reducing its carbon footprint the mission of your employer? “It certainly is an important, even critical, goal,” replies the chief legal officer and executive vice president of corporate development at Vancouver-based and globally active Westport Fuel Systems. “That, and, of course, providing solid returns to […]

No one ambles into a showroom to casually buy a firetruck or ambulance. No one takes it out for a test spin and then sits down at a desk with a sales rep to pencil out a deal, talk about a trade-in and set up the financing.  But there still needs to be a bridge between municipalities and agencies needing firetrucks and rescue units and the companies making […]

Maserati makes cars that are fast, decadently luxurious—and now, electric. The Italian auto manufacturer made news in 2020 by announcing its vehicles will be all electrified within the next five years, following a global trend away from gasoline-powered cars. Steering that drive is CEO Davide Grasso, who served as chief marketing officer at Nike, then […]

“Mexico Mi Amor.” This phrase was emblazoned on T-shirts sold by enterprising teenage friends Manuel Sanchez and Fernando Arriaga amidst Mexican civil unrest in the mid-1980s. The two launched their small business to promote the country’s unique beauty, designing all logos and images, marketing their product and “chasing invoices,” Sanchez explains. “It was an amazing […]

An attorney who spends his spare time painting abstract art or playing guitar is not afraid to take things in different directions. Or so it seems as Old World Industries approaches its 50th anniversary, with Richard Stevens acting as an artist of change helping to guide the Northbrook, Illinois, company down unexpected new paths, from […]

General counsels and chief legal officers often claim additional roles—executive vice president and corporate secretary being two of the most popular. Multiple titles sure look good on a letterhead or LinkedIn page, after all. It’s a club that Victor Manuel Manzano Macias, who helps oversee the Mexican operations of international tire heavyweight Pirelli, is proud […]

Sensors that ensure your vehicle stays centered in the lane. Cameras that help drivers pull off the most daunting of parallel parking jobs. Bluetooth technology to help drivers keep their phone conversations hands-free. And that’s before we even get to driverless and autonomous cars, with software designed to follow roads, read traffic signals, and spot […]

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but the extent to which some people go to imitate someone else’s patented products can have Edward Burns shaking his head. Automotive wheels are not easy items to infringe upon, he remarks. Especially when they are big, molded and branded with recognized names, and usually sold four […]

You could say the spin cycle has turned out more than OK for Brendan O’Connor. Or, to be precise, the spinoff cycle. For most of 2018, O’Connor, then the assistant general counsel of mergers and acquisitions at Honeywell International Inc.’s headquarters in northern New Jersey, was entrusted with fronting the company’s spinning off of its […]