Sept. 16, 2015—DENSO Corp. named Haruhiko “Hal” Kato its new president of DENSO Products and Services Americas Inc. (DPAM) on Tuesday. Kato succeeds Yoshihiko Yamada, who retired after 38 years with the corporation.
As president of DPAM, Kato will oversee 470 employees at the company’s facilities in Long Beach and Murrieta, Calif. His duties include managing the sales, manufacturing and distribution of all groups under DPAM:DENSO Light Vehicle Parts, Commercial & Heavy Duty, MovinCool, Robotics and Automated Data Capture (ADC) devices.
Kato joined DENSO in 1986 and began his career in air conditioning systems research and development. Throughout his career, he has held various positions of increasing responsibility within the corporation’s global network, including overseas assignments at DENSO International Asia Pte. Ltd. in Singapore from 1995 to 2001 and DENSO Europe B.V. in Amsterdam from 2001-2006.
Kato became general manager of the Aftermarket Business and Product Development group of DENSO’s Climate, Heating and Cooling Product Division in 2012 at the headquarters in Kariya, Japan. In 2015, Kato moved to Southern California to join DPAM as the company’s senior executive coordinator.