Mendel's exit at Honda elevates U.S. newcomer

LOS ANGELES -- Tucked beneath the headlines last week about John Mendel's retirement from Honda were other personnel changes that will shape the company moving forward.

Key among them is the naming of Masayuki Igarashi as executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co.'s automotive operations.

This will be the first stint at Honda's U.S. operations for Igarashi, who joined Honda in 1988. Since then, he has held posts in Honda's China and Vietnam operations and most recently served as the COO of Honda's power-product operations.

Igarashi will assume a few of Mendel's duties, particularly overseeing day-to-day operations at American Honda and sign-off responsibilities for product evaluations throughout their development.

But the bulk of Mendel's tasks will be passed to Jeff Conrad.

Conrad, general manager of the Honda brand, will be promoted to senior vice president of American Honda. He'll keep many of his responsibilities, and now adds higher-level oversight of Acura, and sales and marketing for both brands to his task list. 

This means Conrad will assume Mendel's role as the highest-level executive working with U.S. Honda and Acura dealers. While Mendel's departure after 12 years could have been a source of concern for dealers, Conrad is seen as a welcome successor. This is thanks to his 35 years with Honda, which have earned him respect throughout the dealer body. 

Conrad's move up doesn't affect the role of Acura's general manager, Jon Ikeda, whom Mendel named to that post in July 2015. Ikeda will now report to Conrad. 

Among the other changes, Honda promoted Dave Gardner to president of Honda Canada, succeeding Jerry Chenkin, who is retiring, and named new leaders for its North American manufacturing and transmission groups. The changes are all effective April 1.