About Us

Kenji Okamatsu is the CEO and President of JTEKT North America since 2022. 

Gary Bourque is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for JTEKT North America since September 2021. Gary has 32 years with what is now JNA and most recently served as Vice President of the Bearings Business Unit where he was responsible for the overall performance of the Bearing business, including P&L, Engineering, Business Management, and Innovation.

During his three decades at JNA, Gary has extensive senior managmenet experience within sales, manufacturing, and business development functions. 

Gary holds a BSEE from Western New England University and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

COO Press Release

Tsutomu Kimura is Executive Vice President of JTEKT North America since 2019. He is also a Managing Officer for JTEKT Corporation, Nagoya, Japan and most recently led all of the Japan domestic steering & driveline plants. He joined JTEKT in 1981 with progressive roles in manufacturing leadership in Nara, assignment to JTEKT Europe from 2010 through 2015 where he served as President in Lyon, France and was responsible for all plants in Europe.

His mission at JTEKT is to strengthen our process knowledge and capabilities for the JTEKT Production System (JPS) and TQM Problem Solving.

James Gregory is Vice President of Manufacturing for JTEKT North America. He responsible for 15 manufacturing faciliites across both business units. In addition to manufacturing operations, James oversees key horizontal support functions across the to include quality management, maintenance, environmental safety and health, production administration, logistics, production engineering, total quality management, and production improvement functions.

He has over 30 years of dedicated service with JTEKT. His career assignments include plant management, European bearing production and global needle bearing production responsibilities. This included time in France and Germany.

Prior to JTEKT, James worked in both automotive and industrial fields with a focus on manufacturing and process engineering.

James has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University.

Donna Baker is the Vice President of Shared Services, which includes overeeing Human Resources, Legal, Finance, IT, and Corporate Strategy & Planning. In her leadership role, Donna provides overall strategic oversite for the company and leads her functions in developing and executing organizational initiatives.

Prior to joining JNA, Donna worked as a senior leader in various roles in multicultural organizations, extensively Japanese and German, being responsible for both corporate and site functions for more than 20 years. Most recently, she has been the Senior Director at Associated Fuel Pump Systems Corp., in Anderson, SC, and Chairperson for North American Associate Relations for DENSO International America, Inc. In addition to automotive experience, she also has experience in the silicon chip and wood forest products industries.

Donna holds a Master’s in Human Resources Development from Clemson University and Bachelor’s from Winthrop University. Her continuous education includes Cornell University Executive Leadership Program, and certifications of Executive Coach, SPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP, and HCS.

Donna also has served the Anderson, South Carolina community as a Guardian ad Litem for the State of SC representing abused and neglected children and as President of the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County.

Kazuyuki Kamiya is Corporate Advisor for Finance and Information Technology of JTEKT North America. He plays a major role in the company's overall financial performance, promoting office operational effectiveness, and elevating team performance through innovative leadership.

He is also standardizing accounting procedure by SDCA (Standardize, Do, Check, Action) management to improve skills and capabilities that employees need to be successful and innovative in today's technology driven environment.

Prior to JTEKT North America, he was a General Manager in the accounting department in JTEKT Japan, and has experience of establishing a company in Thailand.

A 25-year veteran of JTEKT, Hashimoto has extensive experience leading organizational transformations, talent acquisition, leadership development, and succession planning. Prior to his current role, he was in a leadership position of human resources and public relations at JTEKT. He also led organizational strategy and promoted operational effectiveness in leadership positions at Koyo Machine Industry, a manufacturer of machine tools and automotive components.

Craig Woodford is Vice President of Business Development. Prior to his current role, Craig was Vice President of Automotive Services Business Unit for JTEKT North America, managing the steering and driveline product segments.

In his tenure with JTEKT, Craig has also been Director of Manufacturing for JTEKT’s Automotive Systems Business Unit, President of the JTEKT Vonore plant, and Director of Manufacturing JTEKT Vonore plant.

A 25-year veteran of advanced manufacturing and engineering, Craig has extensive experience in automotive parts and capital equipment manufacturing utilizing lean manufacturing principles. Craig brings expertise in the area of lean manufacturing and has successfully led teams toward continuous improvement by refining manufacturing and business processes, safety and quality.

Craig received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University and his MBA from Cornell University.