Looking at his career and path through life, John Cavanaugh says he has often asked himself, “What's the most challenging path I can take?”

“And then I've done that,” the vice president of Goodyear's North American off-highway tire business concludes. “I've always found I've been better off personally and professionally.”

And he's found rewards in taking the road of greater resistance.

“It hasn't always gone smoothly,” Mr. Cavanaugh said, “but I've learned a lot along the way.”

Born and raised in St. Louis, Mr. Cavanaugh, 38, earned his undergraduate degree in government at the University of Notre Dame while in the ROTC, graduating in 1992. He spent four years in the Marines before going back to Notre Dame and earning his master's degree in business administration.

It was another move, he says, that presented a hurdle, given his lack of background in the business arena.

“I didn't take a business course until I got to business school,” Mr. Cavanaugh noted.

Still, he took to the finance world, joining Kmart's Detroit offices in 1998 and earning his chartered financial analyst certification. After two years, he went to automotive supplier Visteon for three years before coming to Goodyear as director of financial strategy in 2003.

He moved up to assistant treasurer, then financial director of Goodyear's off-highway business, and was also director of racing operations from June 2007 to January 2008. Before the promotion to his current position, Mr. Cavanaugh was the financial director of Goodyear's North American commercial tire systems.

The move to operations management, Mr. Cavanaugh said, was another one born from a self-directed challenge.

“I really wanted to broaden my horizons a little bit and get closer to the business,” he said. “Raising money and investing cash is a lot different than selling tires. The biggest issue for me so far is trying to get enough understanding of products and markets.”

In effect, he oversees four very different tire business niches: aviation, racing, motorcycles and all-terrain-vehicles, and mining and earth-moving equipment.

"John has had a wide variety of experiences, but that's only part of the reason we believe he's a good fit for this job,” said Goodyear North American Tire president Richard Kramer. “Running our off-highway business requires the ability to deal with a lot of complexity.  There's a huge range of products, customers, financial issues, production concerns and the like. John's core skill is the ability to work through the issues calmly, with both perspective and a clear direction."  

Mr. Cavanaugh lives in Copley with his wife, Dawn, and two children.

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