Koichi Fukaya named DENSO's next president

"I felt it was time to introduce someone with energy, enthusiam and new ideas to ensure DENSO's corporate growth and vitality into the 21st century." So said current DENSO Corporation President and CEO Hiromu Okabe as he introduced DENSO's next president.

Fukaya will be formally elected after the annual shareholder’s meeting in June. Okabe will be promoted to vice chairman and Akira Takahashi will remain as chairman.

“In today’s ever-changing marketplace, a global viewpoint and strong leadership skills are the most important assets in company leaders,” said Okabe. “I believe Mr. Fukaya exemplifies those qualities, because of his management experience in heading DENSO Manufacturing Michigan [DMMI], leading the Thermal Systems Group, our biggest product group, and leading the Production Promotion Center covering production engineering and quality assurance.”

In his new role, Fukaya will set company objectives and focus on all aspects of corporate, financial and manufacturing areas, as well as strengthen relationships with customers, suppliers, shareholders and associates.

“I am both honored and determined to lead DENSO to further success as we face the many challenges ahead of us in this century’s automotive industry,” said Fukaya. “DENSO’s future depends on a great many factors; some of which are in my hands, but most of which are in the hands of our 87,000 associates. From Japan to Germany, the United States to China, we will work together to create quality automotive products steeped in technological excellence."

While achieving the targets of DENSO Vision 2005 is the first priority, Fukaya already has a management strategy in mind to accelerate DENSO’s growth. He intends to focus on:

• Creating a new frontier company that can break into new fields using our experience and technologies.

• Proposing new products that go beyond all expectations of customers and society.

• Pursuing the highest quality in all that we do.

• Allowing associates to use their talents to the fullest.

“To strengthen our global network and grow the company, we need to remain focused on improving the quality in monozukuri, the process of making things,” explained Fukaya. “That requires talented and educated associates and those associates are DENSO’s most important resource.”

Those aren’t just words to Fukaya. His nearly 40 years of experience at DENSO have taught him a great deal. Leading the Production Engineering department and the Thermal Systems Group showed him how important—and how challenging— it is to improve the quality of DENSO’s monozukuri. Working as president at DMMI for four years taught him the importance of global communication to the success of any business.

And Fukaya is commited to improving communication. One of his first actions as president will be to visit as many overseas operations as possible to talk to DENSO group company associates, listen to their voices and hear their ideas.

That same open communication will extend to the public as well.

“Accountability is one of the most important obligations of DENSO as a member of society and the business community,” said Fukaya. “I want to strengthen the function of listening to the public’s voice and sharing company information more frequently.

“In the end, I want to be a president who sees challenges and meets them; sees opportunities and takes them, and sees improvements and makes them,” said Fukaya.

The following DENSO Board of Director and auditor changes also were recently announced: Board of Director promotions: • Shinro Iwatsuki, senior managing director (from managing director) • Mitsuharu Kato, managing director (from director) New directors appointed to the Board: • Shinji Shirasaki, director (from general manager, Electronics Product Division) • Shigehiro Nishimura, director (from general manager, Sales Planning Department) New auditors: • Toshio Watanabe, auditor (from executive vice president, DENSO International America) • Fujio Cho, auditor and current president of Toyota Motor Corporation Director and auditor retirements: • Isao Maekawa, corporate advisor (from senior managing director) • Ryuzo Tsuyama, president of DENSO Tokyo Corporation (from director) • Yoshihiro Oishi, corporate advisor (from auditor) • Hiroshi Okuda, current chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation (from auditor)