(Savannah, Georgia – June 1, 2016) Great Dane today announced that Brian Sage has been named Executive Vice President of Manufacturing. He reports to Dean Engelage, President, Great Dane, and is based in Savannah, Georgia.
In this role, Sage will work with Sam Gupta, Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and a long-time member of senior management, for several months during a transition period, before assuming full responsibility for the company’s manufacturing efforts. Gupta plans to retire in early 2017.
“Brian comes to us with 32 years of manufacturing and general management experience,” Engelage said. “He brings to Great Dane an enthusiasm for process improvement. He will lead our ongoing efforts to implement new manufacturing technologies, improve plant safety and make our manufacturing processes more efficient. I’m sure Brian will help Great Dane maintain our industry leadership position.”
Sage has 19 years of executive leadership in transforming businesses, and many years of experience leading multi-site global manufacturing operations as well as industrial and manufacturing engineering departments in the heavy machine and automotive industries.
Sage has held positions at General Motors and most recently Caterpillar, where he was a Corporate Lean Advisor responsible for evaluating end-to-end business capability and coaching senior leaders in all functional areas in methods of achieving sustainable lean transformation. Prior to that position he was a Global Operations manager at Caterpillar.
Sage holds a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (Industrial Engineering) in the State of Georgia.
He and his family will relocate to the Savannah area.
Great Dane is the leading manufacturer of high-performance commercial transportation equipment, including dry and refrigerated trailers and truck bodies, as well as steel, aluminum and combo platform trailers. Great Dane has a storied history in the commercial trucking industry and is a driving force in trailer technology, innovation, quality and customer service. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and with additional corporate offices in Savannah, Georgia, Great Dane has manufacturing plants strategically located throughout the United States. The company’s network of corporate-owned branches, full-line independent dealers and parts-only independent dealers offers a broad range of distribution points for new and used trailers as well as aftermarket services across North and South America. Visit Great Dane online at www.greatdanetrailers.com.
