Battle Motors adds senior executives to team

Truck manufacturer Battle Motors, New Philadelphia, Ohio, has announced four additions to its senior executive team. The executives include Stan Mikalonis, Kelleigh Ash, Oliver Weilandt and Dion Isslehardt. Their appointments were made in response to the company’s recent growth in 2021.  

“Demand is very strong,” says Michael Patterson, CEO of Battle Motors. “We have dramatically increased our throughput of diesel and CNG (compressed natural gas) trucks and demand for electric vehicles has increased to the point that Battle Motors needed to add additional truck expertise to the executive team.”   

Stan Mikalonis will serve as the company’s chief revenue officer. In this role, he will be responsible for all sales and revenue growth opportunities for the company.  

Mikalonis has more than 30 years of experience in the truck manufacturing industry. Before joining Battle Motors, he served as executive vice president of sales for Custom Truck One Source, where he helped increase sales revenue by 50 percent over four years. He spent three years as vice president of national accounts for Mack Trucks and 10 years with Paccar in several leadership positions, including general sales manager for Peterbilt Motors Co., operations director and director of national accounts for Paccar Financial Corp.   

Mikalonis’ background also includes truck dealership experience with Rush Enterprises and the full-service business with Rollins Leasing Corp. He has a doctorate degree in organizational management focused on building and developing high-performing sales teams through sales enablement strategies.      

Ash has joined Battle Motors as chief of staff. She has more than 20 years of experience in the automotive and trucking industries and several degrees, including a doctorate in organizational leadership with a focus on automotive engineering.   

Before joining Battle Motors, Ash served in various senior leadership roles driving incremental growth within automotive manufacturers and enjoys her time as an automotive enthusiast. She serves on the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Emerging Trends and Technologies Network select committee as the chair-elect and has been a past winner of the SEMA Top 35 under 35 award.    

Weilandt has been named chief financial officer. His priorities are to transform the financial and procurement functions and processes to achieve profitable growth and to ready Battle Motors from a reporting and compliance standpoint for its next steps. In addition to his primary role, he is also a supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion and brings an international background to the team. Weilandt joins the company from Daimler Truck North America, where he held a chief financial officer role in the aftermarket business unit.    

Isselhardt, named chief design officer and chief marketing officer for Battle Motors, has 20 years of user experience, product design and product development. He has worked with Amazon, Samsung, Electronic Arts, Bose and Romeo Power has included user experience, product design, product development and interaction design.