Motiv Names Ford Veteran Its CEO

Motiv, provider of all-electric medium-duty fleet chassis, announced that its chairman of the board and board member for more than two years, Matt O'Leary, has been appointed as CEO. Jim Castelaz has assumed the role of CTO and will maintain a seat on Motiv's board. O'Leary will continue to serve as interim board chairman and plans to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area in the coming weeks.

"This transition is really a natural byproduct of the tremendous market success that Motiv has experienced, and the future growth plans we are putting in place," O'Leary said. "The number of recent key partner and supplier agreements Motiv has secured over the past year, including sales to USPS, as well as a BMW lithium-ion battery supply agreement, demonstrate that the company has matured and now offers an opportunity to better leverage Jim's incredible technical talent in expanding our technology offerings with innovations to further cement our competitive advantage."

Before joining the Motiv board, O'Leary served in various capacities in his 38 years at Ford Motor Co., including, most recently holding the title of vehicle line director of North America trucks, SUVs, and commercial vehicles. During his extensive career at Ford, O'Leary co-led the launch of the aluminum-intensive 2015 F-150 at two assembly plants.

As director of corporate strategy, he led development of a corporate strategy to significantly grow Ford's presence in the Asia Pacific. As director of product development for South America, O'Leary led the historical transformation of Ford South America from 100% legacy to 100% global products in three years, including local design and development of two global vehicles, including EcoSport and Ka. O'Leary also led from inception to launch the 2009 F-150, which won awards such as the Motor Trend and North American Truck of the Year awards, as well as Truck of Texas.

"It was always my hope that we would reach a point in Motiv's evolution where I could focus on the aspect of Motiv that excites me the most – and that's the development and deployment of our key technology and our growing ability to Free Fleets from Fossil Fuels. I'm incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished and am excited about this opportunity to pass the reins to Matt," said Castelaz. "It has been a pleasure working with him over these last two years, and I am confident of the tremendous value his leadership brings to Motiv."

In January, Motiv had announced a battery supply agreement with BMW AG for its new line of lithium-ion batteries and earlier this month, a new deployment with CALSTART and the United States Postal Service.

Originally posted on Work Truck Online