Jake Montero is taking over as general manager of Peterbilt Motors, the top executive job of the Paccar-owned truck maker. Montero replaces Jason Skoog, who has served in Peterbilt Motors’ top executive role since 2018.
The company said on January 24 that Montero was promoted to Peterbilt general manager and a Paccar vice president.
Montero has been with Paccar, Peterbilt’s parent company, for 19 years, the past two years as Peterbilt’s assistant GM of sales and marketing. “I am excited to lead Peterbilt during this pivotal time in the trucking industry with increased opportunities to leverage advanced technology and innovation to deliver first-class vehicle solutions to our customers,” Montero said.
Montero has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Washington State University and a master of business administration degree from Seattle University. He also completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University in 2024. Montero will be based in Denton, Texas, at the Peterbilt headquarters.
In a January 27 post on LinkedIn, Skoog said he decided to step down after three decades with Paccar. Before taking over Peterbilt, he was GM of operations for Kenworth Trucks, Paccar’s other U.S. commercial truck brand. A company spokeswoman told FleetOwner that Skoog left Paccar “for personal reasons, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
In his LinkedIn post announcing the career move, Skoog offered a “heartfelt thank you to every dealer, customer, and supplier I have had the pleasure of working with across this incredible industry. Your contributions and trust have been invaluable, and I am profoundly grateful for each of you."
“I cherish the countless memories that will last a lifetime,” he wrote. “The trucking industry is truly the lifeblood of the economy, and I am honored to have been a part of it for so long.”
In a corresponding move, Peterbilt elevated Erik Johnson to replace Montero as assistant GM of sales and marketing. Johnson has been with Paccar for 19 years, most recently as Peterbilt’s Denton manufacturing facility plant manager. Johnson has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington.
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While Paccar has not announced its 2024 fourth-quarter earnings, corporate leaders told analysts last fall that they expect to build sales momentum in 2025. Paccar reported Q3 profits of $972 million on sales of $8.24 billion. CEO Preston Feight said his team forecasts that Class 8 sales in the U.S. and Canada would be between 250,000 and 280,000 vehicles in 2025 compared to an estimated 260,000 this year.
“Maybe what you’d expect to see in 2025 is a mirror image of [2024], where the year starts a little bit like [this year is] finishing and then accelerates,” Feight said on a conference call October 22. “I don’t know that, but it does feel like that’s where we’re starting.”
Paccar’s global operations delivered about 44,900 trucks in the third quarter, down from 48,400 in the previous three months. President and CFO Harrie Schippers said on the same October call that the number would drop to about 42,000 in Q4, partly because of several extra holidays in Paccar’s U.S. operations. Paccar delivered more than 51,000 vehicles in the last three months of 2022 and 2023.
