Mark A. Davison, Vice President Business Development
Jerome Gibbs, Vice President Operations and Program Launches
Stephen R. Sperlazza, President and Chief Operating Officer - Assembly Group
Billy R. Vickers, President and Chief Operating Officer - Wheel Group
Mark A. Davison
Vice President Business Development
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In his role of vice president of business development, Mark A. Davison reports directly to the chairman and chief executive officer of TAG Holdings, LLC. He is responsible for up-front business development activities related to identifying and qualifying mergers and acquisitions, and partnering opportunities. He also performs due diligence, launches new businesses and creates post-acquisition strategies. Other duties include leading the overall sales and marketing activities and developing business strategies for all TAG Companies.
After earning a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering in 1980, Mr. Davison began his career with General Motors as a manufacturing engineer at the fabrication facility in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. He was later promoted to production manager, responsible for multiple fabrication and modular assembly operations.
In 1984 Mr. Davison earned an MBA from Harvard and went to work at the General Motors corporate headquarters in Detroit as a senior financial analyst. In this position he advised senior management on new product programs, joint ventures, acquisitions and marketing initiatives around the world.
In 1987 Mr. Davison left General Motors to become assistant to the president of Fleck Manufacturing, a wire harness manufacturer, serving multiple industries. After a short time, he was named general manager of the Electronics Wiring Division. In this position, he was successful in turning around the financial performance of the two-plant, multinational business, while growing the business by more than 60%.
In 1990 after getting married, Mr. Davison returned to the Detroit area. He resumed his automotive career with progressively, challenging positions at three prominent automotive tier 1 suppliers.
At TRW Vehicle Safety Systems, he first handled key customer accounts and led the development and implementation of the program management function on the seat belt side of the business. He went on to lead the aggressive growth of inflatable restraints systems in Europe.
In 1995 Mr. Davison left TRW to lead the $225 million, General Motors business unit of A. O. Smith Automotive products, a leading structural chassis and module supplier. In 1997, he was recruited to lead the overall marketing, planning, and business development activities for Robert Bosch Automotive Group, with more than 50 North American product lines within eight global product divisions.
Mr. Davison is an officer and serves on the board of directors of The Harvard Business School Club of Michigan. He is also very active in his community and has served multiple terms as an officer and trustee of the Bloomfield Village Association. He is married, has two sons, and lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
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Jerome Gibbs
Vice President Operations and Program Launches
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In his role of vice president - operations and program Launches, Jerome (Jerry)
Gibbs reports directly to the chairman and chief executive officer of TAG Holdings, LLC. He is responsible for TAG executive leadership operations support across all global companies (operations leadership development, lean manufacturing, new business launches, new model program support, technical strategies, profitability improvement, implements new business acquisition strategies, and TAG companies continuous improvement support).
Mr. Gibbs earned a bachelor of mechanical engineering degree from General Motors Institute (Kettering University) in 1971. In 1974 he earned a master of science degree in industrial engineering from Cleveland State University. Mr. Gibbs graduated from the Harvard University Business School Executive Development program in 1986.
During the years 1971-1984 Mr. Gibbs held manufacturing and engineering assignments at General Motors locations in Ohio (Parma) and Michigan (Warren, Livonia, and Adrian). Mr. Gibbs was appointed to assistant plant manager and plant manager assignments at Detroit Hamtramck and Pontiac Car Assembly Plants from 1984 -1988.
In 1988 Mr. Gibbs was appointed to the ' GM greenfield site project' as plant manager of the Saturn Corporation, Spring, Hill, Tennessee Assembly Plant.
In 1992 Mr. Gibbs was appointed Assistant Chief Engineer Lansing Automotive Division, in 1995 Executive Director Vehicle Engineering Cadillac Luxury Car Division (Flint), and in 1998 Executive Director Product Development Quality GM North America (Warren).
In 2002 Mr. Gibbs joined The Bing Group in Detroit as vice president - operations of the Bing-Lear joint venture and started his entrepreneur career as president - JG Business Group, LLC.
Mr. Gibbs is an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy College of Engineering and Science specializing in manufacturing strategies and competitiveness, lean principles, product development, organizational profitability, alternative energy manufacturing, and total quality management. He is a member of the Board of Visitors at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and serves on advisory boards at academic and private institutions.
Mr. Gibbs is married with three children and a granddaughter. His hobbies are classic cars, public speaking, and travel. He and his family are members of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.
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Stephen R. Sperlazza
President and Chief Operations Officer - Assembly Group
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In his role of president and chief operating officer of the Assembly Group, Stephen R. Sperlazza reports directly to the chairman and chief executive officer of TAG Holdings, LLC. He is responsible for the management and overall results of three TAG companies consisting of Vibration Control Technologies, LLC, North American Assemblies, LLC, and A&D Technologies, LLC.
After earning a bachelor of science degree in manufacturing technology in 1984, Mr. Sperlazza began his career with PepsiCo Frito-Lay as a production supervisor. He held various progressive management positions up to the level of plant manager.
In 1992 he joined Bandag, Incorporated the worlds largest supplier of retread systems for over the road truck tires. As a plant manger managing multiple facilities he provided leadership in transforming the manufacturing operations into a lean system and quality driven organization. He was selected by the CEO to lead and facilitate the development of a corporate strategic planning model for all manufacturing locations.
In 1996 he left Bandag, Incorporated to become general manager for the worlds largest manufacturer of closed cell foam rubber products, Rubatex Corporation. He was responsible for merging a recently purchased company into Rubatex that required the relocation of the manufacturing operation from the northeast to the southeast. This was achieved with no interruptions to existing or new customer orders.
In 1998 he left Rubatex to become division manager for Nishikawa Standard Company a Japanese, American joint venture company producing sealing systems for the automotive industry. He was successful in turning around the financial and quality performance of this tier one automotive supplier primarily serving JAC customers.
In 2000 he joined Freudenburg-NOK as vice president/general manager running their NVH products division. He was successful in turning around the financial and quality performance of this division. In 2002 a minority joint venture partnership was formed with TAG Holdings, LLC and he was asked to assume the role of president and chief operating officer for this newly created company. He successfully led the company in achieving the prestigious "Shingo Prize" for lean manufacturing. In 2005 he also assumed responsibility for North American Assemblies, LLC. In 2006 TAG Holdings restructured into two divisions and A&D Technologies, LLC responsibilities were also added to Mr. Sperlazza.
He is also very active in the community and has served on the executive council for the local United Way organization. He is married, has three sons and a daughter and lives in Wolcottville, Indiana.
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Billy R. Vickers
President and Chief Operating Officer - Wheel Group
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Billy R. Vickers is the president and chief operating officer of the TAG Holdings Wheel Group and serves as president of Great Lakes Assemblies, LLC, Gulf Shore Assemblies, LLC and Indiana Assemblies, LLC. He brings more then 24 years of manufacturing experience to his role as executive leader of the wheel group. His responsibilities include manufacturing operations, planning and oversight, strategic growth, profit & loss and new business development. As a result of Mr. Vickers’s leadership skills and dedication, Great Lakes Assemblies, LLC, received the prestigious 2006 Honda Delivery award for exceptional quality and delivery. This success was followed by the awarding of two new tire and wheel assembly operations to TAG Holdings from a major automotive customer.
Prior to joining TAG Holdings, Mr. Vickers was the owner of Yale Inspection Services, an MBE certified company providing quality engineering services to the automotive supply base. Prior to owning Yale Inspection Services, Mr. Vickers served as director of operations and later as general manager of New Haven Foundry the (largest minority owned foundry in the United States). Mr. Vickers was successful in guiding New Haven and growing the business into a major tier one supplier to Chrysler and after one year of service he was assigned to the position of general manager. Under his guidance, the plant experienced dramatic improvements in quality performance, employee participation while growing profits. Mr. Vickers served as the lead negotiator for two consecutive UAW contracts which eliminated incentive pay for production workers and created a tiered wage scale for new employees.
Prior to New Haven Foundry, Mr. Vickers served as plant superintendent for Ironton Iron Casting plant. In this role, Mr. Vickers was responsible for the day to day operation of the manufacturing operations, quality, processing and new product launch which included the successful launch of the Ford I-Beam suspension program.
Mr. Vickers obtained a bachelor of science degree from North Carolina State University where he earned a football scholarship and played running back.
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