Mitsubishi Electric Automation has appointed new executive personnel to grow and increase its presence in the Americas. In a series of hires and promotions, Mitsubishi Electric Automation Inc. (MEAU) has named key personnel to new executive positions detailed below.
Milton Coleman has been named vice president of sales. He will report to the company’s America’s regional headquarters in Vernon Hills, Illinois and Scott Summerville, MEAU president and CEO. In his new position, Coleman will have responsibility for all activities related to conceptualizing and implementing MEAU’s sales strategy and achieving sales targets to enable significant profitable growth of product, service and solution sales. Coleman comes to MEAU with 27 years of experience in the automation industry. Prior to joining MEAU, Coleman was vice president of distribution for Bosch Rexroth and regional vice president of sales, Southeast region with sales responsibility for hydraulic and factory automation technology. In both roles he was instrumental in developing and implementing strategies to support Rexroth’s sales growth through multiple channels.
Over his 23-year career with Bosch Rexroth, Coleman held numerous positions in product and sales management covering the full range of Rexroth products. He started his career as a product specialist and application engineer for the Linear Motion Group, and assumed roles with increasing responsibility including product manager, distribution sales manager, and manager of sales and product management. In 2010, Coleman moved to the position of regional sales manager, factory automation where he added Bosch Rexroth electric drives, controls and servos to his product portfolio. In 2012 he assumed the role of regional vice president of sales. In this position he led a team of sales and application engineers focused on factory automation and hydraulic technologies and developed successful growth strategies for key accounts in the Northeast, Southeast and Southwest regions.
Said Summerville, “I am very excited to have an accomplished sales leader like Milton join our team. He is a salesperson’s sales leader. With his experience in product, sales and distribution management along with his experience developing go-to-market strategies, Milton is uniquely suited to lead the MEAU sales team in driving revenue growth.”
Coleman received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University.
Katsutoshi Urabe has been named senior vice president of strategic planning and corporate development. He will be based in the company’s America’s regional headquarters in Vernon Hills, Illinois and report to Scott Summerville. Urabe will continue to be responsible for assisting Summerville to develop go to market as well as operational strategies for the business. He will also continue to provide strategic business coordination with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) in Japan and lead the development of a mergers and acquisitions strategy for the Americas market as well as manage the North America Development Center (NADC), Regulatory Liaison Group (RLG), and expatriate relations function. Urabe has spent his entire 24-year career with the Mitsubishi Electric family of companies. Prior to his current position, Urabe held roles at various Mitsubishi Electric companies with increasing levels of responsibility including: IA product marketing at Nagoya Works at MELCO (MELCO’s manufacturing campus in Nagoya, Japan); product marketing for Overseas Division at MELCO’s Tokyo Headquarters; sales management for Tokyo IA Sales Branch and Tokyo West Office at MELCO’s Tokyo Headquarters; senior director, marketing for Mitsubishi Electric China; and Global Robot senior marketing manager at MELCO’s Nagoya Works.
“Urabe-san has provided excellent strategic assistance to me and the other business leaders within the company. His insightfulness about the business and sensitivity to cultural differences and communication has made his counsel extremely valuable to the entire executive leadership team. He is very deserving of this promotion to senior vice president,” said Summerville. Urabe received a degree in International Business from Kansai University and also spent time studying while on assignment in the UK.
Ken Innami has been named vice president of business development. He will be based in the company’s America’s regional headquarters in Vernon Hills, Illinois and report to Scott Summerville. In his new position, Innami will be responsible for providing leadership, management, and vision necessary to execute the company’s vertical strategy to increase market share and deliver sustained profitable growth in select strategic vertical industries. During Innami’s 24-year career with the Mitsubishi Electric family of companies, he has held various sales and marketing leadership roles, including heading up the global key accounts, marketing and strategic planning/M&A activity for MEAU in the Americas. Prior to joining MEAU in 2008, Innami held roles with increasing responsibility at Mitsubishi Electric Corp. in Japan, starting his career in product marketing at Nagoya Works, then moving to global sales and marketing in Tokyo HQ.
“Ken’s knowledge of the industrial automation market and Mitsubishi Electric is unparalleled. In addition, his customer-centric approach, strategic mindset and drive to increase MEAU’s presence in the Americas market makes him a great choice to lead our business development activities as Vice President,” said Summerville.
Innami received his Master of Engineering in Operations Research/Industrial Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.
Learn more about Mitsubishi Electric Automation at www.us.mitsubishielectric.com/fa/en
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