COO Profile

Billy R. Vickers is the president and chief operating officer of TAG Holdings Wheel Group and serves as president of Great Lakes Assemblies, Gulf Shore Assemblies and Indiana Assemblies. He brings more then 24 years of manufacturing experience to his role as executive leader of the Modular Assembly Group group. His responsibilities include manufacturing operations, planning and oversight, strategic growth, profit & loss and new business development. As a result of Mr. Vickers’s leadership skills and dedication, Great Lakes Assemblies, LLC, received the prestigious 2006 Honda Delivery award for exceptional quality and delivery. This success was followed by the awarding of two new tire and wheel assembly operations to TAG Holdings from a major automotive customer.

Prior to joining TAG Holdings, Mr. Vickers was owner of Yale Inspection Services, an MBE certified company providing quality engineering services to the automotive supply base. Prior to Yale Inspection Services, Mr. Vickers served as director of operations and later as general manager of New Haven Foundry the (largest minority owned foundry in the United States). Mr. Vickers was successful in guiding New Haven and growing the business into a major Tier 1 supplier to Chrysler and after one year of service he was assigned to the position of general manager. Under his guidance, the plant experienced dramatic improvements in quality performance, employee participation while growing profits. Mr. Vickers served as the lead negotiator for two consecutive UAW contracts which eliminated incentive pay for production workers and created a tiered wage scale for new employees.

Prior to New Haven Foundry, Mr. Vickers served as plant superintendent for Ironton Iron Casting plant. In this role, Mr. Vickers was responsible for the day to day operation of the manufacturing operations, quality, processing and new product launch which included the successful launch of the Ford I-Beam suspension program.

Mr. Vickers obtained a bachelor of science degree from North Carolina State University where he earned a football scholarship and played running back.