Sales Manager

Yasuro Sato

*** ****** ***** **** *: 734-***-****

Canton, MI 48188 abgtn8@r.postjobfree.com

SALES and BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LEADER

Account Management, New Product Line & Client Development

Automotive: Polymer Materials, Powertrain, Chassis

Highly motivated sales and business development professional with domestic

and international experience in automotive related industries.

Demonstrated account management and business development skills to achieve

profitable sales growth. Persistent negotiator who uses strong analytical

skills, operational knowledge and a highly logical business approach to

establish trustworthy relationship with customers. Native Japanese language

speaker with global sales experience in North America, Asia and Europe.

Core Competencies

. Account Management

. Costing

. New Product Development

. Price Management

. Quality Management

. Sales Presentation

. Contract Negotiation

. Manage Cultural Differences

. Project Management

Professional Experience

HEXPOL COMPOUNDING, Statesville, NC 2007-7/2011

North American Division of HEXPOL, which is a $1B Swedish public company

supplying rubber compounding, TPV/TPE manufacturing and component business

to the automotive industry. HEXPOL acquired Excel-Polymers December 2010.

Transnational Business Manager

Fully responsible for the annual sales of $20M and business development of

all international customers, mainly Japanese and Korean. Shared Profit and

Loss responsibility with product management team.

. Won new business of $2M in the first year. In addition, expanded

business by a further $2M in existing customers. Tier 1 customers

included: Toyo Automotive, Bridgestone-APM, Hitachi, Toyoda Gosei,

Tokai- Rubber, YUSA and HSAA.

. Managed numerous price increases due to unprecedented raw material

inflations in 2008 and the first half of 2011 without damaging

customer relationship and implemented comprehensive cost adjustment

mechanism with main customers.

. Introduced and implemented proprietary formulations as

localization/cost saving measures for in-house formulation oriented

Japanese and Korean customers. (Hitachi, Tepro and HSAA) Increased

the sales for proprietary formulation business from Zero to $3M, so

did gross margin.

. Coordinated with Excel-Mitsui joint venture in China to develop new

product line and expand customer base.

. Utilized internal technical resources to solve various quality issues,

for example:

o Material localization issue: Nichirin-TN

o Seasonal scorching issue: Toyo Automotive

o Supply chain issues following the March 2011 tsunami.

FREUDENBERG-NOK GENERAL PARTNERSHIP, Plymouth, MI 2003-

2007

General partnership between Freudenberg (Germany) and NOK (Japan). The

global market leader for engine seals and various functional parts in

automotive and industrial markets.

Director - Sales & Marketing Japanese Affiliated Customers (2004-2007)

Fully responsible for the annual sales of $100M and marketing for all

Japanese automotive OEM/Tier 1 customers. Supervised 10 people - six

account managers (4 Americans and 2 Japanese) and 4 application engineers,

who are all expatriates from the Japanese partner.

. Coordinated not only sales efforts but technical/operational issues

with the Japanese partner, including manufacturing equipment/tooling

transfer from Japan to US and from US to China.

. Deeply involved in market claim negotiations internally and

externally.

. Participated manufacturing divisions' strategic planning.

. Worked with legal team to negotiate Terms and Conditions with major

customers.

Account Manager (2003-2004)

Managed sales of $20M to Honda, its tiers and Japanese brake suppliers

(Aisin and Akebono)

. Achieved new business closing goals for two year in a row. (Member of

"Circle of Excellence")

. Successfully managed price increases and negotiated customers' cost

reduction requests.

EAGLE-PICHER AUTOMOTIVE, Hillsdale Tool Division, Hillsdale, MI 2002-

2003

The global leader for NVH manufacturer.

Account Manager

Fully responsible for managing sales of $60M to multiple Japanese customers

including Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi and Isuzu.

. Utilized Japanese offices to determine new business opportunities and

improve relationship with Japanese customers.

. Won new Toyota program working with internal procurement group to

source Chinese components to meet the target price.

YOROZU AMERICA CORP. Novi, MI 2001-

2002

One of the biggest Japanese Chassis manufacturers.

Sales/Marketing Manager

Managed multiple functions including forecasting, budgeting, sales

activities and project management on multiple customers including General

Motors, Mitsubishi, Honda and Nissan.

. Initiated correlated synergy sales efforts with Tower Automotive,

which at that time was the largest shareholder of Yorozu Corporation

in Japan.

. Managed various commercial and technical meetings between US customers

and Japanese engineers as coordinator/interpreter.

WAKO USA, INC., Wheeling IL

1995-2001

US sales and distribution subsidiary for Japanese plastics injection

molding die components manufacturer.

Managing Director

Fully responsible for the entire US operation including the incorporation

of the company. (Complete start-up). Marketing responsibility for European

and South America markets.

. Grew from zero to $2.8M, which were 50% of the plant outlet and 10%

share of US market.

. Profitable since the second year.

. Structured the inventory control database that turned to e-commerce

web site.

. Coordinated an efficient supply chain, including demand forecasting,

international logistics and inventory control. (3,000 line items and

500 active)

. Participated in a European subsidiary start-up that included market

research, competitor analysis and budgeting in 1998 and had managed

the European operation from 2000 to 2001.

Education

M.B.A., Lake Forest Graduate School of Management: Lake Forest, IL 2000

B.S. Physics, Rikkyo University: Tokyo, Japan 1985

Languages

Japanese: Native language

English: Fluent

Miscellaneous

Immigrant Visa (Green Card)

Willing to travel

Open to relocation

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