Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. announced late Thursday the appointment of Atsushi Najima as the new president and managing director for Nissan Philippines Inc. effective April 1, 2019.
Atsushi will report to Vincent Wijnen, senior vice president for sales and for marketing at Nissan Asia & Oceania. He will be based in Manila.
The new company president will be responsible for developing business strategies to maximize Nissan’s overall performance, managing product introductions and expanding the availability of the Nissan brand in the Philippines under its midterm plan Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022.
“With his rich experience in managing teams across multiple countries, I am confident that Atsushi will continue to drive the strong growth trajectory established by the current leadership team,” said Wijnen.
“Under the strong leadership of Ramesh Narasimhan, Nissan has seen significant growth in the promising Philippines market. In calendar year 2018, Nissan’s sales volume in the Philippines grew by 40 percent to an 8.7 percent market share,” he added.
Sales in 2018 hit 34,952 units in 2018, making the company the third top automotive seller and manufacturer.
The company in the last two years reported an average expansion of 58 percent when industry growth was only 20 percent.
Like his predecessor Narasimhan, Atsushi has confidence to expand the brand with support.
Atsushi joined Nissan in 2016 as deputy general manager of Nissan’s regional financial management group in Japan.
Prior to the stint, he spent 18 years at Procter & Gamble across Asia, holding various finance and general management roles in the Philippines, Singapore and Japan.
Narasimhan will the new president for Nissan Thailand.