Michael Lord, interim president and chief executive officer of Blue Water Automotive Systems Inc., is responsible for providing overall strategic planning for Blue Water's engineered thermoplastic components and assemblies for the automotive industry. He also is responsible for organizing and implementing the company's corporate restructuring plan that is designed to optimize manufacturing capacity and build a competitive platform for growth.
That initiative led Blue Water recently to announce plans to close three U.S. plants. This will leave the Marysville, Mich.-based company with 1,100 employees in seven facilities in the United States and Mexico. That announcement came 13 months after New York financial group KPS Special Situations Fund LP bought Blue Water from Swiss investor Sarna Polymer Holding Inc., which had operated the business as Sarnamotive Blue Water since 2000. After KPS bought Blue Water, it also acquired the interior trim business of Clinton, Mass., injection molder Injectronics Inc. and invested $7.2 million to expand Blue Water's Marysville plant.
Most of Blue Water's $200 million annual sales comes from injection molding - primarily automotive parts used in airflow management, interior trim and value-added assemblies.
Lord also is a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, a New York-based global professional services firm specializing in performance improvement, turnaround management and corporate advisory services. He brings more than 30 years of U.S. and international experience across industry sectors including automotive, consumer products, manufacturing, energy, financial services and healthcare.
Most recently at A&M, Lord led the team that advised Dresser, a private equity-owned global engineering business with annual revenues of $2 billion. He also acted as advisor to Levi Strauss in the design of its restructuring of its €900 million European division. Prior to joining A&M, Lord was the CEO of Nationwide Credit Inc., a private equity-owned business based in Atlanta, with more than 2,500 employees. He led a full turnaround of the company.
Lord holds a master of arts degree (with honors) in economics from Cambridge University in England.