RX8Club.com - Mazda Boss Yamanouchi Retires as CEO.

TOKYO --

Mazda Motor Corp. has appointed Masamichi Kogai its next CEO.
The production and purchasing specialist replaces Takashi Yamanouchi, who led the carmaker to its first annual profit in five years.

The promotion takes effect pending approval at the Japanese company's June 25 annual shareholders' meeting, Mazda said in a May 9 statement. Yamanouchi, 68, will retain his chairman title.

Kogai takes the helm after leading the company's crucial makeover toward more cost-efficient manufacturing, dubbed "mono-tsukuri" by Mazda. The overhaul was key to making export-dependent Mazda profitable despite unfavorable exchange rates.

After years of revamping domestic assembly lines, partly to streamline manufacturing for the company's new line of Skyactiv engines, transmissions and chassis technologies, Mazda says it is now able to be profitable with the yen at 75 to the dollar.

As assistant to outgoing mono-tsukuri head Seita Kanai, Kogai played a big role in remaking Mazda as a leaner carmaker. Kanai, who previously was in charge of global r&d and helped spearhead the Skyactiv push, will also be a vice chairman.

Kogai, 58, joined Mazda in 1977 and has spent much of his career in r&d, logistics, cost improvement and information technology. He has been head of production and purchasing since 2011, when the Japanese earthquake forced the country's automakers to radically rethink supply chains and production strategies.

In 2006, he was posted overseas as president of Auto Alliance Thailand Co., a manufacturing joint venture with Ford Motor Co.

A healthier Mazda

Yamanouchi hands over a much healthier Mazda to Kogai.

The outgoing CEO took office in late 2008, as the first Japanese president of an independent Mazda free of Ford's longtime controlling stake. While return to Japanese control was cause for celebrations, the problems facing Mazda were huge.

The company was bleeding cash and it had to balance a paltry r&d budget against plans to upgrade its powertrain and platform strategy and stay competitive against bigger global players.

It also needed to broaden its overseas footprint to counter foreign-exchange losses. His problems only multiplied with the global financial crisis and four straight years of yen appreciation, which hammered its business model.

But Yamanouchi buckled down to raise funds for r&d through risky bond and share sales. He shepherded the launch of Mazda's new Skyactiv line of vehicles, stopped manufacturing at a joint-venture with Ford in Michigan, and unveiled plans for new assembly plants in Mexico and elsewhere overseas.

And in the absence of Ford's assistance, Yamanouchi has reached out for non-equity partnerships with other automakers. Chief among that cooperation is Mazda's plan to manufacture a rear-wheel drive roadster being co-developed with Alfa Romeo.

In the fiscal year that just ended March 31, Yamanouchi was finally able to deliver a global net profit of 34.3 billion yen ($364.3 million), after four years of losses, including a loss of $1.14 billion a year earlier.

Mazda's U.S. sales skidded 21 percent in 2009, Yamanouchi's first full year as CEO, amid a global recession. They have risen about 10 percent annually since. Demand has fallen every month this year, for a January-April decline of 5.5 percent.

Not much golf

Last fall, Yamanouchi said in an interview with Automotive News his main goal was to return the company to black and hinted he was ready for a rest after a tumultuous tenure.

"I only had two occasions this year to play golf on the weekends. But even with that I would draw flak for being the president of a loss-making company that goes out playing golf," Yamanouchi said.

He added: "I became president after the Lehman Brothers collapse, and my first mission was to achieve a return to profitability and ensure that we are on track for future growth."