No stranger to Nexo, Tsugawa was appointed by Kobayashi as a key member of the project team which oversaw the acquisition of Nexo by Yamaha Corporation in 2007. Since that time, Kobayashi has been at the helm of Nexo at its campus in Plailly, north of Paris, where he has overseen the company's transition from entrepreneurial independent manufacturer into a prized subsidiary of Yamaha. Throughout, Tsugawa has remained involved, integrating Nexo's interests into overall Yamaha pro-audio strategy.
Yoshi Tsugawa has been with Yamaha Corporation for 19 years, having joined the company at the age of 23. Although he has spent several years in Europe, working in Hamburg, his most recent position has been as the general manager of business strategy for the Pro-Audio Division in Japan, where he has played a key role in defining Yamaha Pro-Audio's marketing directive.
Over the summer, Kobayashi and Tsugawa will be working together in Plailly, ensuring optimum continuity for Nexo R&D, manufacturing and sales, and customer support. This handover period is expected to be complete by October 2011, when Mr Kobayashi will return to Japan. Another board member of Nexo is also returning to Japan to take up a new posting - after three years in Paris, Adminstrateur Koji Hakamata will be succeeded by Nobuo Fujita.
"My tenure at Nexo has been a pleasure as well as a challenge," says Keisuke Kobayashi. "I will surely miss all the wonderful people, both inside the company and our customers, as well as the excitement I have felt working with a great team.
"This company has experienced significant evolution over the past few years, and all the members of the team have handled the changes very positively and pro-actively. I cannot think of a better person than Yoshi Tsugawa to take over my position. We have worked together for years and he is the most knowledgeable general manager in Yamaha Japan when it comes to NEXO matters. I know he will be a great asset to NEXO as its new CEO, taking the company forward into a new phase both technologically and commercially."
(Jim Evans)
