Names in the News: Canon, EDI announce new appointees

Canon Virginia (Newport News, VA) has named a new president and CEO from within its ranks, while extrusion die manufacturer EDI looked outside the firm to find its new director of sales for the Americas.

Yusaku Azuma has been named president and CEO of Canon Virginia Inc. (CVI), succeeding Takayoshi Hanagata, who has been named chairman of CVI. Hanagata will remain at the Newport News, VA facility. Azuma also will serve as president and CEO of Industrial Resources Technologies Inc. (IRT), a joint venture between Canon Virginia and Canon U.S.A. IRT is in business to reclaim toner cartridges. 

Azuma began his career with Canon Inc. in 1983. For 10 years, he was involved in the design, research and development of automation assembly and robotic equipment. In 1995 he was appointed director of manufacturing engineering at CVI and also served as project leader for the start-up and development of IRT.  In 2002 he returned to Japan as general manager of the Technical Engineering Solutions Division at Canon Inc. He returned to Virginia in 2008 as senior vice president and plant manager of CVI.

Meanwhile, at flat die manufacturer Extrusion Dies Industries LLC (EDI; Chippewa Falls, WI) Robert Deitrick has been appointed director of sales for the America. He will supervise EDI’s regional sales managers in the U.S. and Canada and oversee the company’s network of agents throughout Latin America.

Deitrick comes to EDI after managing sales programs for Measurex Inc. (now part of Honeywell), and then working at EGS Gauging (now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific), where his final position was that of vice president of sales for the Americas. —[email protected]