By
The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Masatoshi Ono stepped down as chief executive and chairman of the embattled Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. yesterday, two months after the tire maker announced a massive recall.
John Lampe, an executive vice president, was named the successor to Ono, who will return to the parent company at Tokyo and remain a member of the board of directors.
Ono did not attend an afternoon news conference called by company officials to announce management changes as the result of the company’s Aug. 9 recall of 6.5 million tires because of safety concerns. However, Ono has said he was not retiring because of the recall, but rather for health reasons.
Lampe said the recall is a setback for the company, but Bridgestone/Firestone
will come back strong.
"There have been accidents and rollovers with Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone tires. We can debate over cause and responsibility, about who knew what and when. But that does not change the fact that these accidents happened and we at Bridgestone/Firestone will remember this our entire lives," he said.
"We know that many people, not just in the United States, but around the world are now questioning our integrity and the safety of our tires. And we know that we can't blame anyone else for people losing trust in Firestone products - not our customers, not our business partners, not the media or Congress. The responsibility is ours," Lampe said.
Reports of Ono's departure have circulated since the recall of Firestone’s ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires, which have been linked to 101 deaths in the United States and more than 50 overseas. The company has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the recall.
During a daylong deposition Monday in Nashville - part of several consumer lawsuits filed against Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford Motor Co. - Ono testified that he offered to retire as head of U.S. operations last month.
Ono said that he told Bridgestone Corp. president Yoichiro Kaizaki in September that he would like to retire from the Nashville-based division "because I will be turning 64 next year and I didn’t feel I was in particularly good health either."
Ono, who for seven years headed the U.S. operations based in Nashville, said he has stomach problems and high blood sugar, and said his retirement request was not related to the recall.
Bridgestone/Firestone also named Isao Togashi, a Bridgestone senior vice president for tire production and production technology, as head of manufacturing and development and board vice president.
Togashi, 58, will be responsible for quality assurance and research and development, Lampe said. Other management changes will be announced in the coming weeks, he added.
Bridgestone/Firestone president Yoichiro Kaizaki said Lampe was the right man for rebuilding the Firestone label.
"He has had a successful career in marketing. Most of all, he enjoys the trust of the 35,000 employees at Firestone," Kaizaki said in a video conference call from Japan. "Rebuilding the Bridgestone/Firestone name will require a huge commitment from everyone."
Lampe said the company was committed to completing the recall by November and 3.7 million tires had been replaced so far.
"We will not rest until we have determined the root cause of the problem, continuing to work with government agencies and outside experts to ensure that a situation like this never happens again," Lampe said.
Lampe will give his deposition tomorrow to attorneys representing consumers seeking class action lawsuits against the company. They are trying to convince the courts to expand the tire maker's recall to include 24 other model of the company's tires and be overseen by a judge, rather than the tire maker.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a consumer advisory on 1.4 million more Firestone tires considered potentially unsafe, and opened an investigation into the Steeltex brand.
