American Suzuki Names New President

American Suzuki Motor Corp. has appointed longtime company executive Rick Suzuki as its new president. He had been president of CAMI Automotive Inc., an auto manufacturing joint venture of Suzuki Motor Corp. and General Motors of Canada. Suzuki will be responsible for directing all of Brea-based American Suzuki’s operations, including its automotive, motorcycle and marine divisions. Suzuki began his career with Suzuki Motor Corp. in Japan in 1974. He joined Suzuki Canada Inc. in 1987 and was responsible for overseeing operations for all three divisions of the Canadian subsidiary. He launched Suzuki Motor’s automotive division operations in Canada.

Suzuki is replacing Manabu Nakamura, who had served as president of American Suzuki since March 1998 and was recently promoted to general manager of motorcycle marketing for the North and South American markets. Nakamura will return to Suzuki Motor’s headquarters in Japan.