Christopher Couch Biography and Net Worth

With more than 21 years of global automotive manufacturing experience, Christopher Couch serves as senior vice president, chief technology and procurement officer for Cooper Standard. In this role, he leads R&D, product development and engineering, product strategy, and program management. He also has P&L responsibility for Applied Materials Science (AMS), which is a venture business unit focused on commercialization of unique materials developed by the company.

Couch serves as chair of the Company’s Global Technology Council, which oversees development of technologies in all areas of the business. Relevant technology domains include materials science, product design, manufacturing process technology, and artificial intelligence. He also leads the CS Open Innovation initiative, which aims to position Cooper Standard as the partner of choice for open innovation with start-ups, universities, and other suppliers.

Based in Livonia, Mich. at the Company's Global Technology Center, Couch reports to the Company's Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Edwards.

From 2016 to 2018, Couch served as vice president, product line strategy and innovation. In this role, he led Cooper Standard’s innovation process and developed the Company’s strategies for organic and inorganic growth in its core product lines. Before joining Cooper Standard, Couch served as chief technical officer and global manufacturing vice president at Lear Corp. in Southfield, Mich. He joined the company in 2013 as a senior executive responsible for advanced engineering, advanced manufacturing and cost optimization.

From 2005 to 2013, he worked at Johnson Controls, Inc. in a variety of P&L leadership positions based in Korea and Japan as the regional president. He was group vice president for Johnson Controls Asia-Pacific with responsibility for regional operations, including advanced development, engineering, program management, and manufacturing at all wholly owned and joint-venture affiliates. He was also responsible for global commercial activity for Asia Pacific customer groups.

From 1993 to 2005, Couch held roles of increasing responsibility at Toyota Motor Corp. During his tenure, he was among the first non-Japanese employees hired and trained as an engineer, as well as the first non-Japanese employee promoted to management in Japan. Fluent in Japanese, he is trained in the Toyota Production System and lean principles.

Couch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering as a Hughes Aircraft Company Masters Fellow, and a doctorate in operations management with a finance concentration as a National Science Foundation Fellow, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.