Christopher Couch
President and CTO at Cooper Standard
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
About Christopher Couch
Christopher Couch is President and CTO at Cooper Standard. Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
12 years with Toyota Motor Corporation, 7 years of that time in Japan. Leadership positions in Manufacturing Engineering, Strategy, and Manufacturing Operations. Fluent in Japanese. Moved to Johnson Controls in October 2005 as President of JCI Korea, a USD 600 million company. Performed turnaround & booked double-digit growth in Korean auto market. Assigned as President of JCI Japan, a USD 1.6 billion business. Moved to Tokyo in June 2007. Executed turnaround that spanned a global economic crisis. Promoted to JCI Group VP in 2012, responsible for Asia-Pacific Seating with USD 2.2 billion P&L. Joined Lear Corporation in 2013 as CTO. Drove cost-savings pipelines for VAVE & manufacturing technology. Led divestiture from global JV with Japanese partner. Joined Cooper Standard in 2016 as VP of innovation and global product lines. R&D; New technology; Product, process, footprint, and go-to-market; M&A. Promoted to SVP & Chief Technology Officer of Cooper Standard in January 2019. Led product strategy, R&D, engineering, & program management. Achieved 37% reduction in engineering spend while commercializing over USD 1.5B in product innovations, including a pivot to electric vehicle-specific products. Added materials science venture business (AMS) & industrial product group P&L to responsibilities in 2020. Successfully commercialized new foam polymer in footwear industry. Added Chief Procurement Officer to responsibilities in 2021. Steered company through supply chain crisis and inflationary cycle, holding our inflation to 600 basis points under our PPI while rebuilding the organization in an era of high turnover. Managed USD 1.3B in spend. Founded Liveline Technologies in 2022 as an outgrowth of R&D at Cooper Standard. Liveline provides software for real-time process control of factory systems using AI-based controllers. Multiple patents pending. Managing as CEO & Chief Data Scientist as we go to general market in 2025. Promoted to President of new Fluids segment in December 2023. Responsible for driving P&L growth and ensuring technology leadership in the automotive market for all powertrains including EVs. Added Chief AI Officer to responsibilities in August 2026. Specialties: Machine Learning, AI, Materials Science, M&A, Startup Mentoring, Open Innovation, Toyota Production System, Supply Chain Management, Production Engineering, Operations Management, Strategic Planning, Senior Executive Leadership, Japanese language, Beginning Korean language, high altitude custom drones, Ironman triathlon training & racing.
Skills
Additional experience
SVP, Chief Technology and Procurement Officer, and Non-Automotive P&L
Cooper Standard
July 2021 – December 2023
Education
- PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology