David L. Viera

David L. Viera is the Chief Operating Officer of Bridgewater Interiors (BWI). For over 25 years, David has held numerous senior-level manufacturing and operational executive roles throughout his career.

In his current role with Bridgewater Interiors, David helps lead the company’s objectives; provides the management necessary for the financial and operational structure; drives the company’s operating efficiency; profitability; business goals, and more. He also acts as a liaison between Bridgewater Interiors and Adient organizations – helping with new business, labor relations, operations, performance management, policy, people, and financial issues as well as ensuring BWI operates to the ideals of a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE).

Prior to becoming the COO of Bridgewater Interiors, David was the Executive Director of Adient’s North American Seating division. During his time in this position, he led the department’s seating operations across the U.S. and Mexico in parallel with corporate advance manufacturing and supply chain functions. Additionally, he oversaw the company’s 20 North American sites, which included more than 10,000 employees. Among his management areas, he led the division in gaining over $6 billion in revenue; managing its employee relation issues; as well as in benchmarking its progress of production, quality, cost, safety improvements against previous measurements to gauge network effectiveness and drive toward “Best Practices.”

Before leading the North America Seating operations of Adient, David was the Executive Director of Adient’s Asia Pacific division. In this leadership role, David was responsible for supporting the strategic and tactical planning; program and launch management; as well as lean and continuous improvement across six countries. David also led the management of more than 20 sites, 40 plants, and 5,000 employees. Further, he worked with his colleagues in creating an intervention regional task force to achieve stretched goals as well as develop, deploy, and execute the regional operations strategy, key tactical plans; balanced scorecards to drive safety improvements; quality achievements; cost reduction; and productivity improvements.

One of David’s most recognized achievements as the Executive Director of Adient’s Asia Pacific division was vertically integrating local market-focused operations. His efforts led to more nearly $2 billion in revenue being generated from production vehicles and $4.1 billion in commercial vehicles. Further, during his time in this position, David was highlighted for driving the footprint, vertical integration, and process technology strategies for the region. As a result of his efforts, there were 7-9% in gross savings year-over-year improvement on approximately $29M of overhead costs spent through lean, Six Sigma, automation, vertical integration, and footprint planning.

Leading up to his executive director roles within Adient, David was the Operations Director Adient’s Toyota, Nissan, VW JIT Seating division in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. As the Operations Director, he oversaw $2.1 billion in sales as well as 4,800 associates.

Earlier in his career, David held a number of other leadership roles, including the Plant Manager for BWI Lansing, the Michigan Seating Plant General Manager; the Manufacturing Quality Director for Adient Toyota/Nissan/VW JIT Seating; the Continuous Improvement & BBP Director for Ford Adient; and the Plant Manager for Adient Madison and MS Nissan Seating Plant.