Navistar makes leadership appointment

Navistar’s busy week continues.

A day after announcing an update to its board, and just hours after launching its new International RH Series tractor, the company on Thursday announced Phil Christman has been promoted to President, Operations, effective immediately.

Navistar says Christman’s scope of responsibilities will include procurement, product development, manufacturing and supply chain. He will report to Persio Lisboa, Navistar’s chief operating officer.

“Over the past two years, Phil has done an outstanding job of helping Navistar complete its turnaround and plan for the future, most recently developing our long-term growth strategy focused on driving operational excellence, growing the core business and building new sources of revenue,” says Lisboa. “Phil has the knowledge, operational experience and passion to help us further strengthen our operations.”

Christman has been with Navistar for nearly 30 years. During this time, he has held leadership roles in engineering, led Navistar’s severe service and global businesses, ran the company’s procurement and supply chain functions, and most recently, served as senior vice president, Joint Strategic Operations & Planning.

In that role, he led benchmarking initiatives focused on making the company more competitive and played a vital role in developing the strategy that led to Navistar’s alliance with Volkswagen Truck & Bus, the company says.