Icahn Sourcing Guru Joins WestPoint

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/19/2005 12:00:00 AM

West Point, Ga. —

WestPoint Home's efforts to expedite its global manufacturing reach moved forward last week as Icahn Associates' Jeff Engel was named chief operating officer.

Engel was previously chief procurement officer for Icahn Associates. Prior to that, he was executive director of Americas purchasing at Ford Motor Company, where he managed a supplier portfolio of about $50 billion and all supplier sourcing, strategy development and quality for Ford's operations in North and South America.

Engel traveled extensively throughout Asia developing sourcing and manufacturing partners for Ford. Before joining Ford, he was a principal at AT Kearney, where he worked primarily with manufacturing clients on operational restructuring and corporate strategy.

Engel has been involved with WestPoint since financier Carl Icahn successfully bid for the assets of the former WestPoint Stevens at auction four months ago.

In his new position, Engel reports to WestPoint President and CEO M.L. “Chip” Fontenot.

Fontenot said Engel will help the company “accelerate our offshore strategy and coordinate it with our domestic rationalization.”

Reporting to Engel in his new position will be David Stanfield, vice president-domestic bed manufacturing and operations; John Hurston, vice president-bath products manufacturing; Robert Lanier, vice president-solution products group; and William Walker, managing director and president-Asian Operations.