FULLERTON, Calif. (Nov. 6, 2013) — Yokohama Tire Corp. (YTC) has added two top-level executives: Naoki "Nick" Takeda, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Taketoshi Morita in the newly created position of vice president, OE business.
Mr. Takeda comes to YTC from its parent company, Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (YRC), where he served as general manager of its tire business planning department for the past 2½ years.
Since joining YRC in 1988, Mr. Takeda has worked in several positions with both YTC and YRC. In 1993 he held the title of assistant treasure in YTC's finance and accounting department, but he moved back to Japan in 1995 and served in several positions with the parent company, including assistant manager at its Mishima plant. Mr, Takeda returned to YTC in 2010 as CFO and treasurer before returning to Japan a year later.
"While being the head of Yokohama's global tire business, Mr. Takeda was also supporting various YTC projects, such as the new Mississippi plant," said Takayuki Hamaya, COO for YTC. "Now he will not only be supporting but creating more strategic projects for YTC's future growth."
Mr. Morita, also a Yokohama veteran, began his career with YRC in 1987 and has since held several positions, including manager of OE sales (1993), manager of the overseas tire sales department (2002), general manager of the company's Dubai office (2003) and, most recently, president of Yokohama Iberia (2009 to 2013).
"With his experience in YRC's OE business and overseas sales departments, Mr. Morita will prove to be a great asset for developing new OE opportunities for YTC," Mr. Hamaya said.