DETROIT—After two decades of steady growth in North America, the Original Equipment Suppliers Association is preparing to seek overseas alliances.
Julie Fream, the association's new president, said she plans to seek ties with supplier organizations outside of North America.
"Many of our members already are international, and many desire to become international," Fream said. "So expanding our reach will help the membership."
Fream, 49, added that the association already has reached out to foreign organizations but that it was "too early to talk about specifics."
Last week, the association announced that Fream would succeed Neil De Koker, who will retire Oct. 1. Fream, a former Visteon Corp. executive, has held a variety of automotive manufacturing, sales and marketing jobs for the past 30 years.
In 1983, she joined General Motors as a manufacturing engineer, and subsequently worked for Ford Motor Co. and TRW Automotive. She spent 14 years at Visteon, where she managed a global marketing group.
Fream departed Visteon in 2011. Since then she has served as a trustee of Michigan Technological University and Oakwood Healthcare, a hospital system in southeastern Michigan.
De Koker, who helped launch the OESA in 1998, is stepping down after overseeing steady growth there. This year the association has 446 member companies, up from approximately 150 in 1999.