Motoring Ventures LLC

Edward Hightower is an electric vehicle OEM CEO, global automotive executive, entrepreneur, public board director, and published author. He is the founder and managing director of Motoring Ventures LLC.

Hightower previously served as chief executive officer and president of Lordstown Motors Corp., an original equipment manufacturer of electric vehicles for the commercial fleet market. In 2022, he led the operational turnaround of the company, implementation of a new asset-light business strategy, and launch of its first vehicle – the Endurance battery electric full-size pickup truck. In doing so, over 700 jobs were saved, and Endurance was selected as a finalist for 2023 North American Truck of the Year. Of all the new light-duty EV manufacturers, Lordstown was one of the very few (Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, and Lordstown) to have successfully developed, certified, launched, and delivered its vehicles to customers. Crain’s Automotive News magazine recognized Hightower as the first African American CEO of a publicly traded automaker. Hightower also served as CEO of the electric vehicle design and engineering joint venture between Lordstown and Foxconn.

Earlier, Hightower served in several senior new-product development, engineering, strategy, brand marketing, and P&L leadership roles between Ford, BMW, and GM; including leading GM’s $20 billion global crossover utility vehicles business as the executive chief engineer / vehicle line executive. He also worked as a hands-on growth, strategy, operations, and M&A consultant at AlixPartners, LLP. Hightower has also served on several public, private, and not-for-profit boards of directors.

Hightower authored the book Motoring Africa: Sustainable Automotive Industrialization, published in 2018. Based on his industry experiences in China, India, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil, Motoring Africa makes the case and offers an actionable roadmap for economic development by building sustainable automotive manufacturing businesses in six of the 54 countries in Africa.

Originally from Chicago, Hightower earned a BS in General Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He is a lifetime member of both Kappa Alpha Psi and the Council on Foreign Relations. Hightower is a 6th degree Master Black Belt and certified sensei instructor in Isshinryu karate. He and his family live in metro Detroit, Michigan, USA.