LORDSTOWN

the flow of energy from the batteries,
TAKE YOUR
mer project engineer wrote in an anony-
he says. “If you think about it, modern
cars and trucks are computer rigs run-
ning around on four wheels.”
Burns left Nuance in 2007 to start
AMP, which first specialized in convert-
ing conventional vehicles from gas to
electric power. But by adding $25,000
for the conversion to the price tag of a
$50,000 luxury car, AMP failed to find
enough takers to be profitable. Burns
then got a break in 2010 when Navis-
tar, a Chicago-based manufacturer of
mostly diesel trucks with a plant in
Springfield, went looking for a part-
ner to build electric vehicles for UPS.
Burns came on board with AMP, later
acquiring Navistar’s Workhorse truck
brand and changing his company name
to Workhorse Group. In 2016, UPS or-
dered more than 300 trucks from the
Indiana plant Workhorse acquired from
Navistar.
An investor in Burns’s earlier start-
ups, including MobileVoiceControl,
Lukens owned 13 percent of Lordstown
Motors as of May of last year, according
to The New York Times. Burns and Lukens
are both Moeller grads—the football
standout was two years behind Burns—
but the two didn’t get to know each other
until their sons played on the same soccer
team at St. Margaret of York in Loveland.
Lukens is best known in Cincinnati as the
former president of Neace Lukens, one
of the city’s largest insurance agencies,
which he sold in 2011.
Lukens says he’s confident that
Burns will make a success of his plans
mous company review on Indeed.com.
Another former engineer posted on the
same website: “The place is a joke. If you
[are] part of the family, you have a secure
job. If not, you could be thrown out like
trash at any moment.”
But Zito doesn’t think hiring people
you know is necessarily a liability. “It
really reduces the number of unpleasant
surprises,” he says. “We think it’s an as-
set to find people who are like-minded
and fit in with us.”
Burns has brought many of the same
people from Workhorse to fill key posi-
tions at Lordstown Motors, including
the new company’s chief operating of-
ficer; human resources officer; manu-
facturing engineer; and marketing
manager, his daughter Brittney. At the
same time, though, he has also pulled
in two recruits with General Motors
experience (chief engineer and human
resources director) and a new chief
production officer with experience at
Tesla. The new company maintains of-
fices across the street from Workhorse
headquarters in Loveland.
Burns has touted the acquisition of
the old GM plant as a key advantage for
his new company in beating competi-
tors to the market. But auto industry
analysts are less optimistic. “GM has
likely already removed some of the
valuable equipment from the plant and
transferred it to other GM locations,”
says Arun Kumar, managing director
in the Chicago office of AlixPartners, a
worldwide consulting firm. “The pow-

DIGITAL MARKETING for converting the Lordstown plant.

But in a May 2019 story in The New York
TO THE NEXT LEVEL Times, he questioned whether Burns
was the right person to run Lordstown
Motors. “At some point in time, the
company needs to be handed over to an
operational person,” Lukens told the pa-
Visit
per. Lukens says he doesn’t remember
cincinnatimagazine.com/
making the comment.
cincinnati-magazine-digital-studio
to learn more. While at Workhorse, Burns had a
habit of hiring relatives and friends as
his top executives, which several former
employees say led to favoritism and a
lack of professionalism. “Friends and
family company ran [sic] by delirious
and unprofessional individuals,” a for-
er train assembly for electric vehicles,
which is very different from the ones
used for internal combustion engines,
will require significant new invest-
ments” for new equipment and con-
verted space.
But with the promise of $675 million
for making Burns’s dream of an electric
pickup come true, long-time partner
Zito says the odds of succeeding are in
Burns’s favor. “I think that everything
is there to be successful,” he says. “I
think the funding is there. The plant is
certainly there. And the willingness to
work hard is there. If anybody can do it,
I think Steve can.”

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