(Reuters) – Lordstown Motors appointed new executives, including a Chief Commercial Officer, on Wednesday, as the electric-vehicle startup ramps up efforts to bring its first pickup truck to the market.
The company said Chief Operating Officer Jane Ritson-Parsons will also take on the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer to build Lordstown’s commercial strategy for its vehicles.
Lordstown also said long-time automotive industry executive Edward Hightower will take over as President, effective Nov. 29, from Rich Schmidt, who is stepping down. Hightower is currently Managing Director at Motoring Ventures and has already been working with Lordstown in a consulting capacity.
Shea Burns, also an autos veteran and who has previously led several launches at Ford Motor Co, will assume the role of Senior Vice President of Operations at Lordstown. The company said Burns will lend support for the launch of the Endurance pickup truck.
Lordstown has had to rejig its management after founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Burns and finance chief Julio Rodriguez resigned in June.
While the company has since found replacements, it is still trying to get its first model, the Endurance pickup, to the market, a task made more difficult by the company’s shaky financial position and a storm of regulatory backlash and short-seller scrutiny on the viability of its ambitions.
Lordstown shares have lost more than 70% this year. The company reports third-quarter results on Thursday. Analysts expect an update on the pickup truck.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
