Topcon Management Changes

Effective immediately, Ewout Korpershoek (left on the image), formerly managing director of Topcon Europe Positioning (TEP), will join the Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) senior executive team as chief marketing officer responsible for all marketing and product management functions at TPS and TEP. Tony Hirayama (right on the image), currently CEO of Topcon Positioning Iberia / InlandGEO and a director of TEP, will become the new managing director of TEP. Hirayama will also remain in his current positions.

Korpershoek was also named chairman of the TEP board of directors. He has been a member of TPS' strategic management team and executive committee since July 2010 and has also been appointed to the executive committee of the positioning business unit of Topcon Corporation where he will be in charge of global marketing.

In his new position, Korpershoek will manage the first steps of true globalisation of Topcon marketing and product management. Under his leadership the TPS and TEP marketing, product management, and training teams will integrate their talents and resources to harmonise the Topcon brand message and customer experience in the western hemisphere.

Ray O'Connor, president and CEO of TPS and managing executive officer of Topcon Corporation, said that Korpershoek's management of TEP has seen it through both rapid growth and an austere economy. "Ewout's vast experience, creativity and keen judgment have provided the solid foundation for success. I have asked him to be our first chief marketing officer, reporting directly to me, using his talents to lead and unite TPS and TEP in the critical areas of marketing and product management. Combined with his new responsibility for global marketing on the Topcon executive committee, we now have the opportunity to serve our many markets with a unified message and the strongest products worldwide," said O'Connor.

About his appointment to managing director, Hirayama expressed his gratitude to Steve Hirano, Topcon executive officer and general manager of the global positioning business unit, and O'Connor. O'Connor said that there is no one in the Topcon executive management team that has more diverse leadership experience than Tony Hirayama. "His years at TPS, then at headquarters, then in Australia and Europe with precision agriculture, and as a director of TEP make him ideally equipped to lead TEP as we continue to add new markets and growth opportunities."

Korpershoek, who joined TEP in 1991, will remain a resident of the Netherlands, but spend extensive time working at TPS. Hirayama, who joined Topcon in 1985, will relocate to the Netherlands in the near future, but continue to spend time in Madrid at Topcon Positioning Iberia / InlandGEO as required.