About Us

Koichi Yamanaka is the CEO and President of JTEKT North America, the president of JTEKT Automotive North America, Inc., Koyo Bearings North America since 2016. He took on the additional roles as CEO of JTEKT South America(Brazil/Argentina/Panama) in 2018. Mr. Yamanaka has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility globally in senior purchasing positions in JTEKT over the past thirty-two years. 

Additionally, Mr. Yamanaka has served as coordinator/advisor of purchasing/PM/CP/PA at JTEKT Europe, the GM of steering business and the Managing Officer of purchasing/PM/strategic planning. Throughout his thirty-two-year tenure with JTEKT, Mr. Yamanaka has built a reputation for developing business strategies with a superb business sense and a strong decisive leader from his long and successful career during his service in overseas group companies including North America, South America, and Europe.

He holds a BA in Economics from Kansai University.

Michael R. Davidson (Mike) serves as Executive Vice President and COO of JTEKT North America Corporation and as a Managing Officer of JTEKT Corporation, Nagoya, Japan.  Additionally, he is Chief Risk Officer and a Board Member for JTEKT’s North America region.  JTEKT is a top 20 global automotive supplier and the largest manufacturer of automotive steering systems in the world with additional divisions for industrial and automotive bearings, driveline systems, and machine tools. 

Mike began his career with Master Lock Company in 1989 as a quality engineer.  An opportunity to participate in a green field plant start-up led Mike to the automotive steering industry in 1991 with progressive roles in quality and manufacturing management for TRW Automotive.  A 1999 move to what is now JTEKT provided increased global experience with multi-plant and general management of their steering and driveline division.  Mr. Davidson was promoted to his current role in 2015 and championed the relocation of JTEKT’s North America Regional Headquarters to Greenville, SC. 

Actively involved in the community, Mike has served on multiple non-profit boards and committees.  He is past Board Chairman of the Morristown, TN Area Chamber of Commerce and Ministerial Association Temporary Shelter, past Board Member of the Hamblen County, TN United Way and HC*EXCELL Education Foundation in addition to other committee and advisory positions.  

Mike holds a master’s degree in organizational management from Tusculum College and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University.  He resides in Greenville, SC with his wife and two sons.

Gary Bourque is the Vice President for the Bearing Business Unit at JTEKT North America where he is responsible for the overall performance of the Bearing business, including P&L, Engineering, Business Management, and Innovation.

Gary is a 30 veteran of JTEKT, with various responsibilities in Manufacturing, Business Management, and Sales. Most recently, Gary was Senior Vice President for all JTEKT North America Sales and Marketing located in Michigan. He and his family relocated to Greenville in February 2016.

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

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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.

Hiroshi Nakamichi is the Executive Advisor for Production Administration and Engineering. His key responsibilities are standardization, implementation and acceleration in the areas of quality, safety, environmental health and safety, production engineering, and production improvements. Mr. Nakamichi is charged with production administration and new program management for both business units. Mr. Nakamichi is a 30 year veteran of JTEKT and has decades of experience in production administration.

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.

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.

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 the Automotive Services Business Unit for JTEKT North America, managing the steering and driveline product segments. Prior to his current role, Craig was 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 currently serves on the Board of Directors and Steering Committee for Honda’s Lean Network and as President and board member of JTEKT’s facilities in Vonore and Morristown TN, Piedmont, SC, and Ennis, TX.

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

John M. Jaloszynski is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at JTEKT North America, in Plymouth MI. He has over 30 years of leadership experience in sales and operations.

His career started in 1984 with Associated Spring – Barnes Group Inc. and spanned responsibilities in product engineering, sales, operations, division management, and leadership of an international sales team. In 2004 John brought his expertise to JTEKT, and has progressed from leading the driveline sales and application engineering team, to leading the Automotive Sales team, and now the Automotive, Industrial and Aftermarket Sales and Marketing teams.

John holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Gannon University in Pennsylvania, and a Master’s of Science in Management from Walsh College in Michigan.

Tony Harris is Vice President of Purchasing for JTEKT North America, a position to which he was appointed in April 2017. In this role, Harris is responsible for JTEKT’s North American region parts and materials procurement and supplier development activities.

Tony joined JTEKT in 1990 as sales engineer, and has extensive automotive industry experience, having since progressively held positions of increasing responsibility encompassing sales, application, design and/or test engineering roles.

Currently, Tony is the Board of Directors President of the Woodlands of Knoxville Townhouse Corporation. 

He earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee.