TROY, Mich. – Electric Last Mile, Inc. (“ELMS” or “the Company”) today announced eight new additions to its global leadership team in the areas of engineering, operations, marketing, business development and sales. Georgette Borrego Dulworth joins the team as Vice President of Human Resources, Praveen Cherian as Vice President of Engineering, Chris Slesak as Director of Connected Vehicle/Telematics, Rudy Wang as Director of Vehicle Software, Eric Keipper as Executive Director of Vehicle Integration, Jacqueline Siegel as Director of Battery, Sharon Dudley-Parham as Director of Marketing, and Adam Du as Director of ELMS China Operations. These additions bring decades of leadership experience in the automotive industry and in China’s EV market from companies including Ford, General Motors and Bosch.
“We are thrilled to welcome these leaders to our team at ELMS,” said James Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO of ELMS. “Each new team member brings deep, unique automotive experience as well as the proven ability to build global organizations in the commercial vehicle space. These leaders come at an exciting time as we continue to make significant strides on our business and production plans.”
Georgette Borrego Dulworth, Vice President, Human Resources:
Ms. Borrego Dulworth joins ELMS with over 20 years of experience in human capital and legal matters leadership. She was earlier Vice President, Legal of Dematic, a subsidiary of KION Group and a leading supplier of integrated automated technology, software and services to optimize the supply chain. Prior to joining Dematic, Ms. Borrego Dulworth served as Corporate Counsel and Director of Human Resources for North America with MSX International, LLC and Director of Talent Acquisition and Diversity at FCA, now Stellantis. Ms. Borrego Dulworth holds a BA in Business Administration and a JD from Wayne State University.
Praveen Cherian, Vice President, Engineering:
Mr. Cherian is a seasoned global automotive executive with over 20 years of transformative leadership in the automotive sector. He joins ELMS as the VP of Engineering, bringing his experience in leading global engineering and program teams at Ford and its two joint ventures in China, where he spent more than 10 years. In his most recent roles, he served as Director of Engineering at Changan Ford and Chief Engineer of the Ford Transit at Jiangling Motors. Earlier in his career, Mr. Cherian oversaw the early Ford Fusion Hybrid and the first commercial EV in U.S., 2010 model year Ford Transit Connect Electric to market. Praveen Cherian graduated from University of Cincinnati with a master’s in mechanical engineering.
Eric Keipper, Executive Director, Vehicle Integration:
Eric Keipper is an accomplished vehicle development Engineer and Director with nearly 30 years of vehicle development experience. He joins ELMS as the Executive Director of Vehicle Integration, responsible for high-quality integration of systems and components for local market, efficient last mile delivery solutions. Mr. Keipper brings in-depth experience from his career at General Motors, Chrysler/FCA, Karma Automotive, and most recently, Pratt Miller Engineering. His voice of the customer development process and technical product development focus has consistently produced high quality products customers desire to purchase and enjoy driving. Mr. Keipper focuses on building strategic partnerships and developing engineering tools and processes that achieve the required product focused results. He has an BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, an MS in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
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Chris Slesak, Director, Connected Vehicle/Telematics:
Mr. Slesak joins ELMS as the Director of Connected Vehicle Car/Telematics. Chris previously held such roles as the Director of the Electric Vehicle OEM Business Unit and Head of Signal Transmission for Guardian Industries, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, Managing Director of Road-iQ, a Telematics and Connected Devices & Services organization specializing in vision systems for the commercial vehicle industry, and Global Product Line Director for Telematics at Delphi Automotive. His earlier roles included leadership positions at Ford, Visteon and Hyundai. Mr. Slesak graduated with a master’s degree from Purdue University with his BS from Michigan State University with a major in Chemistry.
Rudy Wang, Director, Vehicle Software:
Mr. Wang joins ELMS and is responsible for vehicle software development. He was previously at Mando America’s Electric Power Steering R&D Center, where he led software teams working directly with global EV OEMs. During his tenure, he supported the launch of EPS products for EV OEM and autonomous driving customers on the west coast. Earlier, he focused on natural gas and hybrid powertrain engineering at Bosch. Mr. Wang received his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toledo.
Jacqueline Siegel, Director, Battery:
Ms. Siegel has over ten years of industry experience in battery integration, testing and validation, and hybrid and electric powertrains. Her previous work includes serving as Global Chief Engineer PHEV Batteries FCA/Stellantis and as an Energy Storage Systems Engineer at Fisker Automotive working on battery pack development. She has significant experience overseeing technical activities related to program execution and delivery of all FCA PHEV batteries globally, including Jeep Renegade/Compass 4xe, Jeep Compass PHEV China and Jeep Wrangler 4xe. She received a master’s in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
Sharon Dudley-Parham, Director, Marketing:
Ms. Dudley-Parham brings a career history within the automotive sector. She most recently served as Director of New Business & Product Development at ACV Auctions’ True360. Previously, Ms. Dudley-Parham spent more than two decades at General Motors in a variety of marketing and sales leadership roles. Among these, she led national and regional fleet sales, as well as product and brand for advanced technology and alternative-fuel vehicles. Ms. Dudley-Parham further served as marketing chairperson and member of the board of directors for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Cities Organization. She holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Adam Du, Director, China Operations:
Mr. Du has a strong commercial and technical background with twenty years of automotive experience in three different functional areas: Sales & Marketing, Engineering, Program Management. Prior to joining ELMS, he served a Director of New Business Development in Asia for Accuride. Prior to that, Mr. Du spent ten years at Bosch China as a Director of sales and project management, managing all sales activities of Bosch Starter & Generator division to passenger vehicle OEMs.
In December 2020, ELMS announced it entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Forum Merger III Corporation (Nasdaq: FIII), a special purpose acquisition company, that would result in ELMS becoming a publicly listed company. The transaction is expected to close this month, subject to regulatory and stockholder approvals and other customary closing conditions. The combined company will be named Electric Last Mile Solutions, Inc. and will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the new ticker symbol “ELMS.”
