Yasuhiro Obikane has taken over as president of the Faun Group in Germany from Koichi Tadano who, after three years, has returned to the head office of Faun’s parent company Tadano in Japan. Obikane has been with Tadano for 30 years.
Yoshinori Komamura has been appointed president and managing director of Komatsu’s Belgian subsidiary, Komatsu Europe International. He succeeds the former vice president and managing director Teruaki Noda who has returned to Tokyo after four years in Belgium. Noda is now deputy general manager of Komatsu’s international division.
Ted Doughty, who founded the Hydraulic Equipment Supermarkets in the UK more than 35 years ago, has retired and sold the business to three senior managers: Stuart Diesel, who becomes managing director, operations director Jim Ruxton, and financial director Brian Read. No money changed hands in the deal – Dowty converted his shares into loan stock which the new directors will repay over 10 years.
Jim Forshee moves up at Link-Belt Construction Equipment from director of manufacturing to vice president of manufacturing. Tom Posch joins the company as vice president and chief financial officer, taking over from Keiji Saito who this month returns to parent company Sumitomo Construction Machinery in Japan as international crane manager for the Nagoya plant.
The UK’s Safety Assessment Federation has created the post of technical director, to be filled by Richard Morgan, who was previously chief engineer.
Mark Rigby is sales manager of TH White, responsible for Palfinger products in the UK.
In the USA, Jack Garfinkle, formerly senior project engineer and director of crane engineering at RO Corporation, has been named director of engineering services at the Phoenix Corporation. Phoenix manufactures Skyhook aerial cranes and Skyhoist remote controlled aerial service platforms and cranes.
David Richards has joined Versalift Distributors (UK) as training manager. The company has been accredited as an official training centre of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF).
