Blue Bird Corp. has named Britton Smith as senior vice president of electrification and chief strategy officer, responsible for strengthening the company’s electric-powered school buses, expanding the company’s electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem and establishing strategic partnerships to drive performance.
Smith has over 20 years of leadership experience in public and private-equity-owned companies across manufacturing, industrial, healthcare, financial services and services sectors. Most recently he served as director of strategy and deal advisory at KPMG. Before then, Smith held various executive roles, including COO at financial services company DFC Global Corp., and associate principal at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
“Britton’s broad industry and leadership experience makes him a strong executive team member to further fortify Blue Bird’s leadership position in zero-emission electric school buses,” says Matthew Stevenson, president and CEO of Blue Bird Corp. “He will be instrumental in turning our vision of an employee-centric, high-performance organization into reality. Together, we will advance clean transportation solutions to shape the future of the industry.”
Smith succeeds Trevor Rudderham, who has decided to retire after an over 40-year career in the automotive and transportation industry. Rudderham has served in the role of senior vice president of electrification since July 2020. He will stay on through the end of May to ensure a smooth leadership transition.