ASIA/PACIFIC
FORD MOTOR CO. - Philip Spender has been named president and managing director of Mahindra Ford India Ltd., Ford Motor Co.'s joint assembly venture in India. Spender, from Ford Australia, replaces John Parker, who returned to Ford world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.
MARUTI UDYOG LTD. - Suzuki Motor Corp. has named K. Yamamoto sales and marketing director of Maruti Udyog Ltd., its joint automaking venture with the Indian government. Yamamoto, former managing director of Suzuki-Thailand, trades places with longtime Maruti sales chief Kozo Senga, who takes up the Thailand post.
HYUNDAI MOTOR CO. - Lee Chong-Goo, vice president of research and development, also will take over research and development responsibility for newly acquired Kia Motors. Also, Kim Noi-Myung has been promoted from executive managing director to vice president of international operations of Hyundai Motor Co.
ROVER JAPAN - Chairman and former President Peter Woods has left the company and stepped down as chairman of the council of the Tokyo-based European Business Community. Woods, 64, will return home to Britain and is expected to take a post at the Department of Trade and Industry, where he will help British companies seeking to enter the Japanese market.
Woods became president of Rover Japan Ltd. in 1986 and moved up to chairman in May 1998. During his tenure, Rover established itself as among the most successful foreign-car marques in Japan, with an expanding network of independent dealers and strong sales. Japan is the largest market in the world for the Rover Mini.
Rover Japan plans to leave the post of chairman vacant. The president is David Blume, who moved up to that post from his prior position as vice president last May.
At the European Business Council, Woods will be succeeded by Isabelle Hupperts, chief representative for Japan and Asia-Pacific for Societe Generale de Belgique.
VOLKSWAGEN JAPAN - Fumiko Hayashi has been named president of Fahren Tokyo, a Volkswagen Group Japan K.K.-owned dealership in Tokyo. She is the first woman to head a VW or Audi dealership in Japan.
Hayashi, 52, has more than 20 years' experience in auto retailing in Japan. After working at Honda Motor Co. stores from 1977 to 1986, she joined BMW Japan in 1987. At BMW, she worked in a number of retailing positions, most recently as president of the company-owned store in central Tokyo.
Her predecessor at Fahren Tokyo, Hiroshi Tomita, 55, will return to Volkswagen Group Japan in another management position.
GE CAPITAL - Tamotsu Adachi has been named president and CEO of Japan Leasing Auto Corp., the second-largest automotive leasing and fleet services company in Japan.
In addition, Yoshikazu Nojima was named executive vice president of sales and marketing. David Shepherd will become executive vice president of operations and integration.
The appointments will become effective when GE Capital Fleet Services takes ownership of Japan Leasing Auto, which is expected to occur in early March. GE Capital, a unit of General Electric Co. of the United States, is buying the leasing businesses of Japan Leasing Corp., a troubled unit of insolvent Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd.
Adachi previously was managing director of business development in Japan for GE Capital.
Before that, he worked at trading house Mitsubishi Corp. from 1977 to 1987. In 1988, he joined McKinsey & Co., where he was elected principal (management group member) in 1995. He joined GE Capital in 1997. Nojima previously was general manager of business planning and sales promotion for Japan Leasing Auto.
Shepherd was vice president of business development in Japan for GE Capital's auto finance business.
