David Emerling is the Industry Collaborations Director for The Ohio State University‘s (OSU) College of Engineering in Columbus, Ohio. At OSU, Emerling is responsible for executing a broad strategy targeted at attracting industrial funding for at OSU in the form of consortium membership fees, gifts, student scholarships, fellowships, and research programs.  Emerling joined CAR in November of 2008. 

Prior to joining CAR, David Emerling was the Program Director for Microheat in Farmington Hills, Michigan. At Microheat, Emerling managed all the Ford programs that were about to launch with Microheat’s HotShot product. Before joining Microheat, Emerling worked at Lear Corporation for nearly 20 years as a program manager for General Motors interior programs, leading a team of engineers and designers.  In addition to program management, Emerling was previously the director of Advanced Engineering at Lear Donnelly before joining Lear’s Asian OEM Division as director of Technical Support.  Emerling was also the North American contact for Lear China and India.   Prior to Lear, he was a platform system integrator for the Electric/Electronic Department at General Motors in Warren, Mich.  Through employment with OSU, Microheat, Lear and GM, Emerling has over 40 years of automotive experience.