Tenneco has announced the appointment of business leader Denise Gray to its board of directors, effective March 1.

Gray will also be a founding member of the board of directors for the new Tenneco powertrain technology company, along with several members of the current Tenneco board. Tenneco, following its merger with Federal-Mogul in 2018, is to form two separate publicly traded companies this year.

“We are very pleased to welcome Denise, a true leader in business, to our board,” says Gregg M. Sherrill, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Denise is not only a highly successful and respected executive, she is a true innovator in automotive technology, having led global technical organizations that have transformed the industry. I expect Denise will make significant contributions to the current Tenneco organization and play a critical role in the formation of the new Tenneco board of directors later this year.”

Gray currently works as the President of LG Chem Michigan Tech Center in Troy, Michigan. She is responsible for the North American subsidiary of South Korean LG Chem Ltd., a lithium-ion battery manufacturer. She has held the position of Vice President in Powertrain Electrification at AVL List GMBH in Graz, Austria and North America. Additionally, she had been a part of General Motors for 30 years. While there, she had been headed the Global Battery Systems Engineering. Being a driving force behind General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt vehicle, she was known as “the battery czar”.