Asics North America Names President
Richard Sullivan has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of Asics North America. He takes over the top role in the region from North American chief executive officer Koichiro Kodama, who has been elevated to a new global role of managing executive officer for Asics at its headquarters in Kobe, Japan.
In addition, Barbara Turner will assume the role of chief administrative officer and Sean Condon has been named vice president of omnichannel for the North America division. All of the changes are effective Nov. 1.
“We have so much confidence in Richard’s ability to lead North America during this pivotal time for the region,” Kodama said. “He steps into this role at a time where the brand is seeing strong momentum even amongst a challenging business climate. We know Richard can take this brand even further as he is a proven industry leader with an acute understanding of our brand, accounts, consumers and overall business in North America.”
Sullivan, a 25-year veteran of the footwear industry, most recently served as executive vice president of Asics North America, overseeing digital, sales, marketing and merchandising, where he was credited with successfully restructuring, evolving and growing the business over the last year. In 2016, he joined the brand as the president of Asics Canada.
In his new position, Kodama will oversee various divisions including Geography Strategy, Retail, Global Subsidiaries (including North America), Asics Trading and Haglofs.
“Under Kodama-san’s tireless and genuine leadership, our business has made tremendous progress in North America, even in the most challenging of circumstances,” Sullivan said. “He has certainly laid a solid foundation of great teamwork and focus that we will continue to build upon with best in class products and innovation and a strong connection with both our customers and consumers.”
Turner, who joined the brand in 2016, was previously the vice president of human resources for Asics, and Condon, currently senior director overseeing digital, e-commerce and retail, will continue to set and implement strategy for the brand’s digital and direct-to-consumer businesses, which experienced a tripling of sales in the U.S. and Canada over last year in the second quarter of 2020.
Starting in January, Naomichi Hatori will join Asics North America as executive vice president of strategy. He is currently general manager of the geography strategy division in Kobe and will be responsible for setting and implementing global strategy across the region.
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