Leadership
Edward T. Hightower, Managing Director
Edward Hightower is an automotive EV OEM CEO, global automotive executive, entrepreneur, public company board director, and published author. He is the founder and managing director of Motoring Ventures LLC.
Hightower previously served as the CEO and president of Lordstown Motors Corp., an original equipment manufacturer of electric vehicles for the commercial fleet market. In 2022, he led the company’s turnaround, stabilized operations, and successfully completed the development, certification, launch, and customer delivery of the Endurance all-electric full-size pickup truck. Under his leadership:
- Over 700 jobs were saved
- Lordstown became one of the few new light-duty EV OEMs – alongside Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid – to bring a vehicle from concept to market
- Endurance was selected as a finalist for North American Truck of the Year
This work resulted in his recognition by Crain’s Automotive News as the first African American CEO of a publicly traded automaker. Hightower also served as CEO of the EV design and engineering joint venture between Lordstown and Foxconn of Taiwan.
Earlier, Hightower served in several senior new-product development, engineering, strategy, brand marketing, and P&L executive leadership roles between Ford, BMW, and GM. At GM, he led the company’s $20 billion global crossover vehicles business as the executive chief engineer. As BMW’s, brand manager for the 5, 6, and 7 Series models in the US, he drove the $2 billion 5 Series portfolio to record sales and profitability. He also worked as a hands-on growth, strategy, operations, and M&A consultant at AlixPartners, LLP. He has extensive experience in emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Hightower currently serves on the board of directors of the iconic school bus manufacturer Blue Bird (Nasdaq: BLBD), where he chairs the Technology and AI Sub-Committee. He has also served on several other public, private, and not-for-profit boards.
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. Hightower had the honor of presenting Motoring Africa at the African Union HQ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also served as an advisor to the CEO and leadership team of electric bus manufacturer Kiira Motors Corp. of Uganda.
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. Hightower is a lifetime member of both Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and the Council on Foreign Relations. Hightower is a 6th degree Master Black Belt and active certified Sensei instructor in Isshinryu karate. He and his family live in metro Detroit, Michigan, USA.
