Kitamura Announces New VP of Sales, Distributor

Kitamura Machinery has announced that Dave Lucius has joined its leadership team as vice president of sales for the Americas.

“Dave brings with him more than 20 years of manufacturing experience to Kitamura,” Dr. Akihiro Kitamura, president and CEO of Kitamura Machinery. “In addition, he brings tremendous expertise and a proven growth track record in overseeing machine tool distribution networks and leading product development teams.

“I look forward to working closely with the Wheeling, Illinois team,” Lucius says. “The opportunity to work with Dr. Akihiro Kitamura and Ted Asano, along with an engineering team that has more than 355 industry patents to develop products for the North American and world markets is extremely exciting.”

Lucius will work closely with Executive Vice President Ted Asano to accelerate Kitamura’s next stage of growth in America, Canada and Mexico. “Dave brings a wealth of knowledge and fresh ideas to our management team and we are delighted to have him on board,” Asano says.

The company has also named Tipton Technologies as its exclusive representative in northern Ohio. 

Tipton Technologies is a newly established division of JBM Technologies, a full-service machine tool distributor in Pennsylvania, which has represented Kitamura for more than 30 years. The Tipton team has more than 50 years of sales and machine service experience, backed by JBM’s reputation and resource center.

After installation, Tipton provides customers with training, custom turnkey applications, preventative maintenance programs and technical expertise over the phone. It also has one of the largest parts warehouses in the Northeast.

“Kitamura is our best-selling line in Pennsylvania, and Tipton is excited to continue that legacy in the northern Ohio area,” says President and CEO John Watkins. “Kitamura’s dynamic range of horizontal, vertical and five-axis machining centers really fills a gap in the market for high-quality, reliable, machines.”