HONDA Australia has made a number of executive appointments as the company prepares to combine its two main business divisions – Cars (Honda Australia) and Motorcycles & Power Equipment (Honda Australia MPE) – that will operate out of a new, single head office location by the end of 2022.

To manage this transition, a single Honda board in Australia has been formed under new managing director and CEO Yoshitaka Okamoto, replacing Hiroyuki Shimizu who after five years in Australia has been promoted to a new role in the Honda Aircraft Company (Honda Jet) in North Carolina.

Long-serving Honda Australia director Stephen Collins is promoted to chief operating officer responsible for the automotive business.

Mr Okamoto has been with Honda Motor Company for 27 years. He was previously the manager of the automobile department within the Motor Sports Division, including administrative operations for the Honda F1 program.

Prior to this he was manager of the PR Division with Honda and has significant experience in the fields of product planning and marketing.

Mr Okamoto will oversee all Honda operations in Australia while Carolyn McMahon continues as director and is responsible for the shared business services and unification.

The managing director of Honda MPE, Atsushi Kimura, will become executive vice president and together with Peter Singleton as director, will be responsible for the Motorcycle and Power Equipment business.

Honda said that although the two Honda Australia business units will remain separate entities, they will continue working closely together by sharing systems and other joint business activities where appropriate for efficiency and to leverage economies of scale.

Other Honda appointments in the automotive business are: Current Honda general manager of ownership experience, Matthew Evans, becomes general manager of the automotive division and is responsible for vehicle planning, regions, Honda Centre network, product planning and other auto-related business.

In his new role, Mr Evans will lead the senior leadership team at Honda Australia and work closely with the other divisions across all auto operations.

Replacing Mr Evans is James Greenwood, who becomes the acting general manager of the ownership experience division. Mr Greenwood has extensive experience in the aftersales area and has played a key role preparing for the move to a new Honda Australia head office location.

Belinda Cusworth will continue in the role of general manager of customer experience division, while Danielle Knowles, general manager of business services, will continue in her current role and lead a joint business services division.

Motorcycle and Power Equipment general managers Tony Hinton (sales) and Sam Schepis (customer service) will also continue as key members of the joint Honda Australia senior leadership team.

Honda’s new COO, Stephen Collins, said the changes were aimed at ensuring Honda Australia’s resourcing and capabilities were best placed to continue to move the business forward.

“As the auto and motorcycle and power equipment divisions of Honda in Australia prepare to come together in a shared, single head office location for the first time since 1991, these changes will ensure we have the right organisational structure and leadership team in place to support the ongoing success of Honda in Australia,” he said.

By Neil Dowling