SBD Automotive Embarks Upon ‘New Era’ of Automotive Research & Consulting Excellence: Successfully Recapitalizes, Remains Independent, Names Expert Leadership Team
After more than 24 years of providing innovative research and consulting to its automotive and broader mobility clients, SBD Automotive has successfully recapitalized to transition company ownership to a new group of employee owners and the next generation of company leaders.
David Bell, SBD Automotive’s co-founder, will transition from his role as CEO to guide its Board of Directors over the next 12-18 months. Under his leadership, SBD Automotive has expanded to a global footprint beyond its United Kingdom headquarters to a network of offices in key automotive hubs in Japan, North America, Germany, China, as well as India and in 2017 was recognized with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for more than 50% annual international sales growth for two straight years.
“We started SBD Automotive nearly a quarter century ago with 3 engineers, a facsimile machine, and a singular vision for better-protecting vehicles against car theft. I could not be prouder of SBD Automotive’s positive impact on the industry, growth to over 100 team members, expanded vision, and its everyday commitment to advising clients in the right way" said David Bell.
"The time is now right to evolve even faster, and I have complete confidence we are doing so in a highly thoughtful manner that will best position SBD Automotive for decades of future success.”
While today marks the first business day of a new corporate and managerial structure, what will not change is SBD Automotive’s relentless focus upon helping its clients solve the key challenges they face in an increasingly complex and dynamic mobility industry. Rather than expand its reach into non-synergistic generic industry verticals, SBD Automotive reiterated its commitment to automotive research with a particular focus on ‘C.A.S.E.S.’ or Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric and Secure vehicles.
SBD Automotive further announced its intentions to buck the trend of industry consolidation rapidly spreading across the automotive consulting ecosystem. The reorganized firm will remain 100% financially independent beholden only to its transitioning founders and current employee owners. This means that every SBD Automotive client and prospective customer can continue to expect complete objectivity, integrity, and transparency from every single data point, research publication, and strategic recommendation on a go-forward basis.
Leading the new entity is incoming CEO, Andrew Hart, who has been with the company for more than 16 years including roles leading SBD Automotive’s Innovation Division, co-founding its North American office, and working side-by-side with clients across three continents.
“I am thrilled to be taking over the leadership reigns of SBD Automotive at this critical industry juncture" said Andrew Hart. "What excites me most is the opportunity to build upon our founding team’s vision and expand our commitment to become the automotive industry’s most preferred research and consulting firm. The fact that we can do this with a high degree of founder support, business continuity, full independence, and a structure to reward the next-generation of employee partners makes this all even better.”