Mitsubishi appoints new leaders to exec team in Australia

Mitsubishi Australia has installed four new executives at the top of the company, bringing in talent from its wider international network as well as promoting from within.

Kiyohiko Ito will join the team as Chief Financial Officer with substantial experience in the same role at various other international Mitsubishi markets – including Russia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Meanwhile, Rob Nazzari has been promoted to the role of Co-Chief Operating Officer (COO), sitting alongside existing Co-COO Yoichi Watanabe, with both reporting to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shaun Westcott.

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Nazzari has worked at Mitsubishi Australia for more than 13 years across a variety of leadership roles, most recently as its Director of Marketing and Operations.

Elsewhere, Tony Principe moves into the newly-created role of Chief Business Advisor, harnessing his own 37-year career with Mitsubishi to advise the leadership team on "vital strategic and operational matters".

And finally, Yohei Ito has been added to the lineup as Director of Aftersales. Ito joined the carmaker's Australian arm in March after many years working at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, and more recently at its location in Thailand.

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“These positive personnel moves are the result of much hard work conducted by all our staff, from the executive level down, in developing a future strategic direction for the business,” said Shaun Westcott.

“With a number of important appointments sourced internationally, it also demonstrates how well respected Australia’s work is within Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s global ecosystem, and comes off of the back of significant growth across both sales and aftersales [locally] over the preceding two years.

“We’ve achieved a great mix of internal promotion and global expertise with these announcements, balancing strong local insight with an up-to-the-minute worldview."

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Mitsubishi is having a strong year locally, despite the ongoing supply issues affecting the industry, with 35,902 sales year-to-date and up 13 per cent – putting it third in the new car charts.

Its best-selling models at present are the Triton ute, which placed 7th in May with 2054 units sold and up 11 per cent, and 4th year-to-date with 14,906 and up 36 per cent, and its new-gen Outlander mid-sized SUV. The latter came 10th in May with 1799 models shifted and up 135 per cent, but is missing from the top 10 for the year so far.