A major reorganization at Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. has resulted in a new leader at Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. And the name is a familiar one.
Tomoshige "Tomo" Mizutani will be chairman and CEO of both Toyo Tire U.S.A. and Nitto Tire U.S.A. Inc. effective Jan. 1, 2016. Toyo also promoted Roy Bromfield, who will give up his chief operating officer duties and take over as president of Toyo Tire U.S.A., replacing Mizutani.
Also as of Jan. 1, Director Iori Suzuki will give up his position as senior vice president and general counsel for Toyo Tire Holdings of America Inc., and take on the responsibilities of president, also replacing Mizutani. He also was named a corporate officer.
Here are some of the assignment, personnel and organizational changes made by the board of directors.
Assignment and personnel moves
* Katsumi Komaguchi, chairman, is also a new representative director.
* Takashi Shimzu, president and representative director, among other titles, is no longer group executive officer of tire business.
* Koichi Ono, director and senior corporate officer, is the new group executive officer of tire business; he also was named deputy general manager of the Seismic Isolation Rubber Division. He will give up being the general manger of Toyo's North America Business Unit Jan. 1.
* Hidefumi Uematsu, president of Toyo Tire Japan Co. Ltd., has been named a corporate officer.
* Masayuki Kanal will be the new general manager of the Tire R&D Division and the Tire Business Group Headquarters. He also was named a corporate officer.
* Tamotsu Sakuramoto, corporate officer, will add general manager of the replacement tire sales division to his duties. He also is general manager of the Tire Business Group Headquarters, and will become a senior corporate officer.
* Tatsuo Mitsuhata will give up his titles in Europe and move to the corporate office as general manager of the Tire Planning Div. and Tire Overseas Sales Planning Department. He also was named chairman of Toyo Tire (Shanghai) Co. and a corporate officer.
Additional general managers will be Yasufumi Higashira (Tire Planning and Administrative Dept.), Akio Hirano (Tire Logistics Dept.), Yasushi Minamitani (R.E. Tire Planning and Administration Dept.), Takao Fukui (Standards Management Department and Quality Assurance Div.) and Mitsunobu Kohno (DT Strategy and Planning Dept. and DT Planning Div.). Masato Watanabe was named general manager for the Kuwana, Japan, plant.
Organizational changes, Tire Business Group
Effective Jan. 1, 2016, organization changes in the Tire Business Group Headquarters are as follows.
1. Six business units of Japan, North America, China, Asia Oceania, Europe and Nitto are dissolved.
2. The Tire Business Planning Dept. is renamed Tire Overseas Sales Planning Dept.
3. The Replacement Tire Sales Division is newly established, and the R.E. Tire Planning and Administration Dept. is established under the Replacement Tire Sales Division.
4. The Human Resources Planning Dept. is newly established under Corporate Planning Division.
5. The Information Systems Planning Dept. is being transferred to Administrative Division.
There also are two corporate organizational changes: The Human Resources Planning Dept. is newly established under the Corporate Planning Div., and the Information Systems Planning Dept. is being transferred to the Administrative Division.
