The Driver's Seat Twitter Campaign - John H & John L

As mentioned, Westporters are taking turns in The Driver's Seat of our twitter account (@WestportDotCom). Learn more about our third contributors, John H and John L, who start in the Driver's Seat today. They are both based at the Westport LD technical centre in Detroit, MI, USA.

John H

Fuel: Coffee! Starbucks or the office espresso machine

John’s role leading marketing and business development for Westport LD involves collaboration with several Westport offices and navigating relationships for the company. Though fairly new to social media, John is pumped to be in the Driver’s Seat of the Westport Twitter account to get you excited about his current focus: the bi-fuel Westport WiNG power system featured in Ford F-250 and F-350 trucks launching this spring. He's just completed a road trip in the truck from Detroit to NYC using only natural gas.

John travels for work, and has always traveled. With over 30 years in the automotive industry, marketing globally, John clearly enjoys working in the sector. He is especially interested now in the transformation of the industry from purely petroleum-based to alternative fueled cars – not science projects, but vehicles available that actually work, right now!

“We have got the potential to change the world,” says John, who is currently based near Detroit, but has lived in Germany, Switzerland and Brazil. When not working to reach that potential, one vehicle at a time, John enjoys traveling for pleasure too. He has been to over sixty countries!

When at home, John keeps busy cooking, celebrating, golfing, hunting and working in his workshop.  Group dinners are frequently on his calendar with his wife and two grown sons, a huge extended family (he’s the eldest of seven) or friends. When asked if he could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, real or fictional, John says the current U.S. President would always be on the list. “I am very opinionated and could give him lots of advice,” laughs John, “though I wouldn’t want the job myself!”

John L

Fuel: It seems John runs on air or water – no tea, no coffee...

John is Vice President of Westport LD, and Managing Director for  North American Vehicle Programs. Like John H, he is obviously much focused on the launch this spring of the Ford F-250 and F-350 bi-fuel trucks featuring the Westport WiNG power system. John is definitely a car guy. He reads many automotive blogs and news, and his favorite website is AutoTrader!

An engineer, John has worked with alternative fuels since 1980. He says, “In many ways it has defined my life’s work, and natural gas is my favorite by far. I have my dream job with people who share the passion.” John is social too; he enjoys working with people in the myriad of professional relationships.

When he is not at work or traveling for work, John says he would be in New York City, on the Jersey shore, or on a beach somewhere, but certainly with his family. When asked his guilty pleasure, he says shopping, but that is family time too – the father of 4 daughters he has had a lot of practice. He especially enjoys the time he spends with the 2 youngest who are still at home with him.

Another family member he wishes he could spend time with is his great grandfather. Having a nice filet mignon steak dinner with him would surely make John’s day. “I can read about other people,” he replies when asked who he would have dinner with, anyone alive or dead, real or fictional, “but I have no other way of connecting to my past and I have so many questions to ask him.”

Where in the World is Westport WiNG – Roadtrip Highlights

From May 21-24 three Westporters embarked on an epic road trip from Detroit to New York in the bi-fuel Ford F250 using only the CNG tank.

The WiNG Road Trip Crew’s t-shirts show all the stops on the trip

The Crew, consisting of John, Nicole and Alissa, made various stops along the way to show off the truck and allow people to take it for a test drive. They travelled through thunderstorms and crossed rainbows. Here’s some highlights:

From left to right, John H., Nicole, Alissa and Arnie C.

Bright and early at 7 am the four adventurers receive a warm farewell in Plymouth. Theirfirst stop? Starbucks.. er, Cleveland. John, who arrived on a red eye flight from the west coast only an hour earlier, demonstrated how comfortable the cab is by taking a long nap on the first leg of the drive.

Alissa was the first behind the wheel, here’s what she had to say about driving the bi-fuel Ford F250 for the first time:

When her turn driving was up, she was sad!

The crew arrived in Cleveland and headed straight to Valley Ford Truck Sales where they hosted a BBQ and encouraged people to stop by and take the truck for a test spin. They had lots of interest and loved showing off the truck.

 John Howell talks about the WiNG™ bi-fuel system

Huge turnout of folks at Valley Ford in Cleveland enjoying their BBQ

The crew headed off to their next stop in Canton Ohio, and had the chance to do their first CNG fuel-up. John’s excited about the $40 fill-up:

The group loved how inexpensive it was to fill the truck with CNG, with the CNG tank alone taking them another 300 miles before needing to re-fuel again.

While refueling they noticed that at the end of the rainbow, instead of a pot of gold, there was a WiNG™-powered Ford F250

The crew headed off to Pittsburgh, where they hosted another BBQ at Allegheny Ford and showed off the truck to visitors.

They spoke with Rick Price of Pittsburgh Clean Cities about the benefits of natural gas vehicles:

They left Pittsburgh and headed to Pottstown, where they weathered a massive thunderstorm that left a lot of other vehicles pulled over on the side of the highway:

On their way to Pottstown their GPS lead them astray, taking them through the Valley Forge historic site.

At Pottstown they stopped at John Kennedy Ford, their final stop before heading to the big apple. Another delicious BBQ, and more people interested in the bi-fuel truck!

It’s here that the Road Trip met the first WiNG™-powered Ford F250 owner, Ken Gibson
.

The crew arrived safe and sound in New York, and began setting up in Times Square for their final show-off of the truck, albeit in the pouring rain.

Nicole is happy to have obtained permission from the NYPD to park the F250 in Times Square.

The rain subsided and the crew had one final task to mark the end of their journey: ring the closing bell at NASDAQ. They changed out of their Road Trip Crew shirts and headed over to join the rest of the Westport team that was in NYC for the 2012 Analyst’s Day. The whole team was part of the bell-ringing ceremony, marking the end of business for the day, and the end of the Where in the World is Westport Wing? RoadTrip. The team thanks to everyone who came out to see them along the way.

Westport CEO David Demers

Inside Westport: Taking a look at IMPACT

Westport isn’t just a global leader in clean transportation solutions, we are so much more, and we have our employees to thank for that. People are typically drawn to working here because they are passionate about the environment and social change, and that passion isn’t just part of the work they do, it’s also important to them personally.

When a group of Westporters noticed that many staff were volunteering within the community on their own time, they decided to form a group to combine and organize their volunteer efforts; and so in 2007 IMPACT was born. IMPACT is the employee-driven Westport community engagement initiative, founded on three pillars: COMMUNITY, ENVIRONMENT and EDUCATION. The team has an ambitious mandate to have its activities leave a positive and measurable impact on the community.

Westport encourages its employees to contribute back to the communities in which we have a presence, through employee volunteering, sponsorship, cooperative programs and environmental awareness. The IMPACT program is a way for Westporters to do this. The program is grassroots and is led by a committee of engaged employees. They try to organize at least one event per month, along with a whole week-long program of events in the summer, called “IMPACT week.” Two very popular events are the “lunch-and-learn” program and group trips to help at the food bank. When a Westporter has an idea for a community project, they bring it to the committee’s monthly meeting, and the team helps to organize a group event. Anyone can join the IMPACT committee, which is currently championed by Westport product engineer, Greg Harper.

It’s through IMPACT that initiatives such as blood drives, invasive species removal outings, the Great Canadian Shore Cleanup, sorting food at the food bank, teaching children about science at the Telus World of Science and even group micro-lending projects through Kiva.org get planned and implemented.