In the December issue of Fortune Magazine, Goodyear Tire and Rubber CEO and JCU alum Rich Kramer ‘86 was featured for continuing to move his company forward with new tire technology. Goodyear is surpassing Wall Street’s expectations for the fourth straight quarter by adapting and innovating. Goodyear leads the global tire industry through new sensor technology and manufacturing tires specifically for electric vehicles.
The company uses green raw materials to remain black on the balance sheet. Rice and soybean oil are replacing some of the synthetic rubber material in new tires. Kramer says this innovation is a game-changer, “We’re replacing sand-based silica with silica from rice husk ash. It’s taking waste from a different process. These changes make the tire more sustainable and on top of that actually give us better performance.”
Kramer says Goodyear hopes to have a tire made from 100% renewable materials in the next eight years. “We know what we need to do to get most of the way there, but we also know there’s going to have to be some invention along the way for us to get to 100%.”
Fortune subscribers can read more about Goodyear’s new tire technology and Kramer’s vision for the future of transportation here.
