(Adds CEO, company comments, details, background)
DETROIT, March 16 (Reuters) - Auto parts supplier Visteon Corp said on Monday Chief Executive Tim Leuliette will step down as head of the company by the end of this year as soon as a successor is named.
The company said its board of directors had hired executive search firm Spencer Stuart to evaluate candidates to succeed Leuliette, 65, who led Visteon's restructuring over the past 30 months into a focused electronics company.
Last summer, Visteon extended Leuliette's employment contract by two years; it had been due to expire at the end of 2015.
Spokesman Jim Fisher said the extension was agreed before the company's pending sale of its 70 percent stake in Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp (HVCC), and the board and the executive felt the time was right for a new leader.
"The board is extremely pleased with the job Tim and his team have done during the restructuring," Fisher said.
Leuliette was named interim chief executive at Visteon in August 2012 and was named permanently to the position two months later. He took over from Don Stebbins, who resigned amid breakup pressure from some board members and shareholders who believed the company was worth more in parts than as a whole. Sources at the time told Reuters that management was resisting a breakup of the company.
In addition to the pending HVCC sale, during Leuliette's tenure, Visteon acquired the electronics business of Johnson Controls Inc and Cooper Standard's thermal and emissions product line, while selling the interiors business of Visteon's Yangfeng joint venture, its lighting division and a significant portion of its global interiors business.
"It is now time for a different leader with different skills to transform Visteon into an even more powerful electronics business," Leuliette said in a statement.
Until 2010, Leuliette was CEO of Dura Automotive, and before that, co-CEO of Asahi Tec Corp after it acquired Metaldyne Corp, which he co-founded. He also served as president and chief operating officer of Penske Corp. (Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Bernadette Baum)