Hadi Saab is the youngest member of the 2020 Automotive News Rising Star list
Photo: Ford
Hadi Saab, Ford’s manager of Cross Vehicle Product Marketing Connected Technology, has earned the title of 2020 Automotive News Rising Star. Saab is one of 25 people in the automotive industry honored on this year’s list, and at just 30 years old, he’s the youngest by a substantial margin.
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Saab joined Ford in 2014 and has quickly become a power player in the company. Most recently, he’s been crucial in the efforts to implement over-the-air update technology in new vehicles, which Ford will kick off this year with the Mach-E, all-new F-150, and Bronco. Saab says that the programs his team is currently working on will roll out in the 2023-24 model years and include pillar-to-pillar digital displays.
Being that he’s also quite young, Saab has also been key in bringing about cultural change in the company. Automotive News describes Saab as a member of the “culture street team” that works to improve the culture within the company.
“Being a 100-year-old automaker comes with a great legacy, but sometimes there’s some tensions,” Saab told Automotive News. “It’s about breaking down those boundaries and achieving our goal. Sometimes that’s more difficult than delivering the product itself.”
Saab volunteered to help during ongoing pandemic
Ford notes that Saab has also been a contributor to Project Apollo, volunteering on top of his regular responsibilities to help make face shields for healthcare workers.
“There were doctors and nurses depending on us to do it and just reading the emails that came in from people asking for help was enough to keep us driven,” said Saab.
It appears that Saab is no longer volunteering on this front. Ford curiously refers to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past tense (saying that Saab was pulling double duty “during that time”) despite the fact that it is very much still ongoing. The Centers for Disease Control reports that there were 27,975 new cases of coronavirus and 722 deaths in the United States on Tuesday alone.
The Automotive News Rising Star list honors up-and-comers like Hadi Saab who work for automotive companies and suppliers. Ford has had a representative on the Rising Stars list every year since its inception in 2014. Past honorees include Henry Ford III, Dave Pericak, and Jackie DiMarco.
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Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.
