New General Manager at Kawasaki’s Engines & Power Products Division

Source: www.TurfMagazine.com

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- Naoto ate” Kobayashi has been named as the new general manager at the Engines and Power Products Division of Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., based here.

The veteran of nearly 30 years with the company assumes his new position as the outgoing general manager, Fumihiro “Clint” Ohno, returns to Japan. Ohno will now manage all of Kawasaki’s worldwide general purpose engine sales efforts.

Kobayashi was most recently senior manager of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Parts Sales Department. He joined the organization  in 1985, originally employed in the General Purpose Engine Group. His career with Kawasaki saw him assume increasingly more responsible roles in both the engine category and with consumer products.

This is not his first assignment in the United States. Kobayashi spent several years at KMC’s Irvine, Calif., headquarters, beginning in the late 1990s. He was in charge of support for the sales and marketing functions for both motorcycles and Jet Ski personal watercraft. The position entailed business plan development, sales program budget controls and new product management. He returned to KHI in 2003 to lead the New Product Management Group in the company’s Sales Administration Department.