Industry veteran Bo Andersson has stepped down from his leadership positions at Yazaki Corp.
Andersson resigned as CEO of the Japanese family-owned wiring supplier’s North and Central American businesses and as president of its European operation on March 31, the company said Thursday.
Andersson, 65, will continue to work at the company in a senior executive advisory role, Yazaki said.
Ryosuke Yazaki, a third-generation family member, succeeded Andersson as CEO of Yazaki North America.
“The automotive industry and technology are both moving faster than ever before,” Yazaki, 39, said in the company’s statement. “With rapid change comes both tremendous challenges and great opportunities. Yazaki is positioned well and will play a critical role in moving the automotive industry forward.”
Hans Lemmens was named CEO of Yazaki Europe. He takes the helm after serving as executive vice president for sales at the company since 2018. He has held various positions at Yazaki in sales, pricing, program management and purchasing since joining the company in 1993.
Kenichi Fujisawa, 53, has been named North American COO, while Andreas Di Vece became COO of the European region.
Fujisawa takes on his role after serving as executive vice president of manufacturing for the North American operations. Di Vece was previously vice president of production and logistics and head of the sales division. Di Vece has also spent time at suppliers Aptiv and Delphi.
Joseph Zerafa has been named acting global head of purchasing.
Andersson had been president of the European operation since July 2017, and was CEO of North and Central American businesses since March 2018. Prior to joining Yazaki, he notably was CEO of Russian automaker JSC AvtoVAZ and General Motors’ global vice president of purchasing.
Andersson is a native of Sweden and a graduate of Stockholm and Harvard universities. He started his career with Saab Automobile AB as a purchasing manager in 1987.
The former Swedish army major was ousted from AvtoVAZ in 2016 and blamed for nearly $1 billion in losses the year before, after just 28 months at the company.
Yazaki Corp. ranks No. 11 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide sales to automakers of $17.6 billion in 2019.