EV startup Canoo names former diplomat Josette Sheeran as president

DETROIT -- Electric vehicle startup Canoo Inc. on Monday named Josette Sheeran, a former diplomat, as its president.

Sheeran, who joined the Canoo board in December, is the executive chairman of the McCain Institute, a Washington think tank.

Previously, Sheeran served as vice chair of the World Economic Forum; executive director of the United Nations World Food Program; U.S. under-secretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs under President George W. Bush; and deputy U.S. trade representative and ambassador covering Asia, Africa, labor, environment, intellectual property, and trade capacity building. In 2011, Forbes named her the 30th most powerful woman in the world.

"She brings vast experience in U.S. and global negotiations, supply chains, financing and partnerships and, in joining us full-time, will help me to build out the company," Canoo CEOTony Aquila said in a statement.

Canoo went public in December through a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and last month said it planned to build an assembly plant in Oklahoma that would open in 2023.

Canoo developed a "skateboard", or a low-rise platform that bundles batteries and electric motors with such chassis components as steering, brakes and wheels, on which a variety of vehicle body types can be built.