Q&A
Market Wisdom
The youthful appearance of Blue Bird President Britton Smith belies his expertise and strategic approach to electrification, manufacturing and the power of partnerships
With Ryan Gray |
ryan@stnonline.com Britton Smith
W
hen Blue Bird named Britton Smith pres- ident earlier this year following the exit of Matthew Stevenson, it signaled more than a changing of the guard. After all,
the move came alongside the return of CEO Phil Hor- lock, who oversaw the creation of the propane school bus market as we know it. It remains to be seen if or when the youthful look-
ing Smith takes on the CEO title as well, but make no mistake. His seemingly fast ascension in the industry is over two decades in the making and just in time to direct the company’s zero-emission vision, which already has resulted in great success on the stock market. While it has been just under two years since he joined
Blue Bird to lead the electrification strategy, Smith boasts several high-profile leadership tenures since graduating near the top of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy and his commission as a division officer and project manager on the USS Pittsburgh Fast Attack Submarine. He followed that as an instructor at the Naval Submarine School. He then served for seven years as an associate prin-
cipal for McKinsey, specializing in Fortune 500 public and private equity-owned healthcare, manufacturing and business-to-business services industries. The latter two put him on a solid trajectory toward school buses. He was also vice president of acquisitions and COO for DFC Global Corporation in London, founded an interna- tional financial services marketplace, and was director of strategy and deal advisory for KPMG U.S. Since joining Blue Bird, he steered the OEM toward electric school bus market share dominance. School Transportation News asked Britton to expand on
Blue Bird’s electric school bus strategy, especially in terms of a new partnership with Accelera by Cummins to build
24 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2023
1,000 new ESBs, discuss the role propane and diesel will play in the industry, how Blue Bird is utilizing strategic partnerships, and new school bus safety advances.
School Transportation News: Being relatively new to the industry but backed by relevant experience in other arenas, what has impressed you most about the power of partnerships, in terms of Blue Bird customers, dealers and suppliers? Do you now add utilities to that mix? Britton Smith: Strong partnerships are the cor-
nerstone of our success, which is evident across our business. Certainly, we are very proud of the exceptional partnerships with our dealer network. Most of our deal- ers have been part of the Blue Bird family for decades and even through several generations. As the face of Blue Bird to our customers, our dealers have provided excellent service to our customers, including over the past few years through the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain challenges. We also believe strongly in developing strategic
long-term partnerships, like those we have with Cummins, Ford, and ROUSH CleanTech. These lead- ing businesses are trusted partners so our customers can have confidence in their school bus purchases regardless of the powertrain they choose for their vehicles. And with the growing demand in EV school buses, we’ve focused even more heavily on developing a robust EV Ecosystem through strong partnerships. We are going on our sixth year partnering with Ac- celera by Cummins on our EV powertrain and work closely with them to provide continuous updates and improvements to our product, a benefit of having a partner very dedicated to the EV school bus market. In order to transition to electric school buses, districts
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