Endurica names Ebbott vice president

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—Endurica L.L.C. is gearing up for growth and adding to experience to its executive team in the process.

Will Mars, president and founder of the Findlay, Ohio-based company said during the International Elastomer Conference Oct. 12 that the firm has hired Thomas Ebbott as vice president. In that role, which he'll step into Dec. 1, Ebbott will be responsible for shaping Endurica's go-to-market growth strategy for the automotive business segment, with a special focus on OEMs.

"I am really excited to becoming a member Dec. 1 of Team Edurica," Ebbott said during the IEC, "and I am really looking forward to working with Will and the team to really grow the business as well as have impact for all the customers in terms of growing their business and making it more efficient and more reliable."

Ebbott brings more than 35 years of experience to the Endurica team, having most recently served as an R&D fellow at Goodyear. Prior to that, he was global manager of simulation technology for Goodyear, a position he stepped into after having served as manager of computational mechanics at Goodyear's Technical Center in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg.

Ebbott began his career with Goodyear in 1987 right after earning his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, where he focused on viscoelasticity and fracture mechanics in polymers. His career with the tire maker included a number of leadership roles, including working as a team leader for the design and development of aircraft tires and retreads.

But it is Ebbott's experience insights with implantation of simulation workflows on a global scale that will help Endurica grow, particularly in the automotive space.

"The wealth of experience and capability that Tom brings to our team strengthens our capacity to bring our customers winning solutions for managing elastomer product durability," Mars said in a statement.

An expert in modeling for rubber fatigue, tire durability, rolling resistance and composite materials, Ebbott has presented at a number of industry events an is a major contributor to various technical partnerships and cooperative research with Sandia National Laboratories.

"The importance of simulation across the global supply chain is expanding rapidly, and Tom knows how to drive and scale business value with simulation," Mars said. "He brings a deep technical background in enterprise scale computing, fracture mechanics and finite element analysis, as well as experience with our fatigue solvers. Tom did some of the earliest work applying fracture mechanics to tire analysis, and his work has had a big influence in the industry. We are excited to welcome him to our team."

Endurica provides what it said are comprehensive tool and workflows for fatigue analysis of elastomers. Its clients include 13 of the top 20 global rubber product manufacturers.