Asics Names New President, Announces Other Leadership Shifts
Asics has announced a slew of new appointments and shifts to its executive leadership team.
The Japanese footwear brand on Friday named Mitsuyuki Tominaga as its new president and chief operating officer. The executive formerly served as Asics’ managing executive officer, chief data officer and chief information officer. Prior to joining Asics, Tominaga held leadership roles at IBM and SAP.
Asics’ former president, CEO, COO and representative director Yasuhito Hirota will transition to the role of chairman, CEO and representative director. Chairman and director Motoi Oyama is also transitioning to the role of senior advisor and director.
“As successor to president Hirota, I will do my best to provide a wider range of customers with the fruit of Asics’ long-term passionate commitment to product development and creation,” Tominaga said in a statement. “To achieve this, I aim to bring about transformation whereby digital strategy will be placed at the center of our management and deeply incorporated into our global business, thereby empowering Asics to achieve further growth in profitability.”
Hirota said in a statement that these new leadership changes are meant to help management further develop the Asics brand “in the face of drastic changes in the business environment.”
“Since 2018, Mitsuyuki Tominaga has played a key role particularly in promoting the digitalization of Asics,” Hirota said. “I truly trust that, as a new president and COO, he will contribute to increasing the corporate value of the Asics Group.”
The news marks the latest leadership appointment at the footwear brand. In July, Asics tapped 15-year industry veteran Michael Dougherty as its VP of U.S. sales to oversee U.S. wholesale sales.
In August, Asics reported its highest-ever quarterly sales in Q2, as business increased year-on-year in all regions and categories in the period. Net sales in the second quarter increased 28.9 percent to 290 billion yen ($2.03 billion based on current exchange rates) compared to 225 billion yen ($1.57 billion) the same time last year. Asics said its strong performance was due to the “continued progress” with in-person sporting events and the “normalization” of social and economic activities, which it said only “truly reopened” globally since the beginning of the year.