Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (HMSB) today announced that Mr. Katsuto Hayashi will step down as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after serving in the company for one and a half years. He will be succeeded by Mr. Toichi Ishiyama, 48.
Mr. Ishiyama has been with the Honda brand for 25 years in various roles in Japan, USA, Thailand, China and Pakistan. He spent a bulk of his time in market research and product planning and will be advantageous in ensuring that HMSB maintains its position as the number one non-national vehicle brand in Malaysia.
During Mr. Hayashi’s tenure in Malaysia, he strategically switched HMSB’s focus under the theme of Next Generation Advanced Technology – offering turbocharging technology, Sport Hybrid i-DCD as well as Honda Sensing to the Malaysian market. He subsequently saw HMSB recorded 100,000 sales units in the fiscal year of April 2016 to March 2017 as well as celebrated its 600,000th production unit – of which he delivered his entire speech in Bahasa Malayu.
Mr. Hayashi will be taking on a new role as General Manager, Overseas Operation Division (Americas), Regional Operation (North America) in Honda Motor Co. Ltd back in his home country Japan.
We at AutoBuzz.my would like to express our gratitude for everything you have accomplished here in Malaysia Hayashi-san, especially how you stir up the competition in the automotive scene. Sayonara Hayashi-san and we wish you all the best.
