BYD announced Tuesday that Aaron Gillmore, formerly at Tesla and SolarCity, has been named VP of truck business for BYD. An accomplished business development executive, Gillmore comes to BYD from Tesla, Inc. where he was director of builder, military, and federal sales.
Prior to that Gillmore was VP of solar development at SolarCity Corporation in San Mateo, Calif. He held that post from 2009 to 2017. In his new role, Gillmore will oversee project management, engineering, sales and aftersales for BYD’s truck business.
“Aaron understands the BYD mission and fits our culture,” BYD North America President Stella Li said. “He brings a diverse skill set to BYD with years of talent as an executive leader in his previous roles. Given our successful deployment of heavy trucks at the ports and for private customers, BYD has already established a foothold as an industry leader. Our plan is for Aaron to build a robust and diverse team with deeply talented personnel.”
Gillmore said the opportunity to grow BYD’s business in an emerging sector of the electric vehicle market is limitless. In recent weeks the company has announced several high-profile rollouts, including the sale of 21, 8TT all-electric delivery trucks to Anheuser Busch.
A licensed civil engineer, Gillmore was selected by Building Design + Construction Magazine as one of the 40 under 40 industry leaders in 2007. He earned his B.S. in civil engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a masters in environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally he has completed the Executive Leadership Development Program at Columbia Business School.
From 1993-1999, Gillmore served in the U.S. Navy as as civil engineer corps officer, obtaining the rank of lieutenant. During his time in the military, Gillmore supervised program management at Travis Air Force Base and executed over $150 million of new development and renovation for multi-faceted facilities and infrastructure projects.
Concurrent with the hiring of Gillmore, BYD’s John Gerra will be promoted to the position of senior director of truck business development. He will focus on electrifying the refuse industry and strategic corporate fleets.
