ORANGE COUNTY

Kazue Naganuma has been named president and chief executive officer of Fountain Valley-based Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc. He replaces Tohei Takeuchi, who has returned to Japan to serve as group manager for the Middle East and Africa in the parent company’s international business office.

Naganuma joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in 1960 as a cost accountant and transferred to the vehicle export division in 1963. Most recently he was senior vice president of Mitsubishi’s MMC Services Inc. unit where he helped plan the MMC/Chrysler joint venture company, Diamond-Star Motor Corp., and concurrently served as assistant general manager of the venture’s manufacturing project office. Mitsubishi Motor Sales is the distributor of the Japanese company’s cars and light trucks in America.