AKRON—Smithers has hired industry veteran Christine Bythewood as its business development manager for product testing.
Bythewood will direct and support business development efforts for the Smithers product testing laboratories in Akron and Lansing, Mich.
She is the third member of the product testing business development team along with Nils Rawert, in Germany, and Grace Zhang, in China. They will collaborate to "ensure Smithers fulfills its strategic commitment of delivering accurate data, on time, with high touch to our global product testing clients," the company said in a statement.
"Technical expertise and excellent communication are key pillars of the Smithers promise, and Christine brings both to our product testing team here in North America," said Jim Popio, Smithers' vice president of operations for North America said in a news release. "With her strong background in testing and automotive components and her passion for helping clients, she will be a great asset to our product testing clients."
Bythewood has more than 26 years of technical sales experience, acting as a liaison between technical staff, clients, and support teams. Much of her background is in automotive and materials testing. Bythewood has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and an executive MBA from Georgia Institute of Technology.
