Smithers adds business development manager for product testing

Akron, OH – Smithers announces the hire of Christine Bythewood to the role of business development manager for product testing.

In her new role, Bythewood will direct and support business development efforts for the Smithers product testing laboratories in Akron, OH, and Lansing, MI. She will connect clients to durability and performance testing for a wide variety of products and components.

Bythewood is the third member of the product testing business development team, collaborating with her colleagues Nils Rawert in Germany and Grace Zhang in China, to ensure Smithers fulfills its strategic commitment of delivering accurate data, on time, with high touch to its global product testing clients.

“Technical expertise and excellent communication are key pillars of the Smithers promise, and Christine brings both to our product testing team here in North America,” said Dr. Jim Popio, vice president of operations, North America, Smithers. “With her strong background in testing and automotive components and her passion for helping clients, she will be a great asset to our product testing clients.”

Bythewood has over 26 years of technical sales experience, acting as a liaison between technical staff, clients and support teams. Much of her background is in automotive and materials testing. Bythewood has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and an executive MBA from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Located in Akron, the Ohio product testing laboratory serves clients across a number of industry segments and has special expertise in fluid transfer systems and related components. The laboratory shares space with Smithers’ analytical and physical testing laboratories, and has a satellite laboratory in Lansing, MI. The combination of the two locations, plus laboratories in the United Kingdom and Suzhou, China, gives Smithers the capacity, flexibility and expertise to meet any client’s product testing needs worldwide. Bythewood will be based out of Akron, OH.