What Independence Could Mean for Motion’s Digital Strategy

Genuine Parts Company has taken another step towards separating its automotive and industrial businesses, naming the teams that will lead both companies following the split.

The new leadership teams

Motion’s leadership team will be:

• Will Stengel: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• James Howe: President and Chief Operating Officer
• Howard Yu: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Kevin Stone: Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer
• Billy Hamilton: Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

The future Genuine Parts Company leadership team will be:

• Court Carruthers: Chief Executive Officer
• Bert Nappier: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Operating Officer
• Jenn Hulett: Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer
• Chris Galla: Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
• Alain Masse: President, North America Automotive
• Franck Baduel: Chief Executive Officer, European Automotive
• Rob Cameron: Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer, Australasia

Jean-Jacques Lafont will become non-executive chairman of Genuine Parts Company following the separation.

The separation remains planned for the first quarter of 2027, subject to final approvals and other conditions. Motion will outline more of its strategy at an investor day on 9 December. (Genuine Parts Company announcement)

Digital priorities can become business priorities

Motion is already a substantial industrial distribution business. Genuine Parts reported that it generated approximately $9 billion in sales in 2025 and serves more than 180,000 customers across North America and Australasia. Its offering includes more than 10 million SKUs alongside services in areas such as automation, fluid power, conveyance and repairs.

That scale makes digital execution central to how the business operates. Product data, search, account-specific pricing, inventory visibility, technical expertise and fulfilment must work together across markets and channels.

When it first announced the proposed separation in February, Genuine Parts said Motion’s capital-allocation priorities would include customer experience, commercial excellence, technology and supply chain. Becoming independent could allow Motion to assess those investments against the needs of industrial customers without competing against the priorities of a global automotive business. (Separation announcement)

That does not automatically make digital transformation faster or easier.

Any corporate separation can raise difficult questions about platforms, data, cybersecurity, finance systems, supplier connections and shared capabilities. Motion will need to decide which parts of its technology environment should remain consistent across North America and Australasia and where regional flexibility creates more value.

The appointment of Stone as CIO gives technology a clear place in the future executive team. What remains to be seen is how closely that technology mandate will connect with commercial, operational and customer-experience priorities.

What to watch next

The December investor day should provide a clearer picture of Motion’s standalone growth and investment agenda. For B2B digital leaders, the most useful details will be practical ones: the priorities for eCommerce and customer adoption, the approach to product and customer data, plans for supply-chain technology, and the measures Motion will use to track digital value.

The wider point for industrial distributors is not that separating a business necessarily improves its digital performance. It is that corporate structure influences who owns technology decisions, where capital is directed and how closely transformation programs align with customer needs.

Motion’s opportunity is to use independence to create that alignment. The real evidence will come from the choices it makes next and whether customers experience a simpler, more connected way to do business.