LOS ANGELES: Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) has announced the appointment of Yasutake Tsuchida as its design chief.
The appointment of Tsuchida as senior director of design takes effect immediately.
In this role, Tsuchida will oversee design operations, including next-generation vehicle planning and brand strategy development.
Tsuchida joins the MNAO team with more than 22 years of experience at Mazda’s headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. He most recently served as the chief designer of the latest generation Mazda3, which launched in November 2018 and went on to win the 2020 World Car Design of the Year award.
Tsuchida was also the chief designer of the Kai Concept, and in the late 2000’s Tsuchida worked in the design studio at MNAO, where he led design on the Furai concept car. Tsuchida began his career at Mazda specializing on exterior design and in the late 1990’s and in the early 2000’s was lead designer for Mazda3, CX-7 and the Ryuga concept car.
Tsuchida aspires to evoke strong human emotion in his designs.
His favourite Mazda is the RX-7 and he is an avid surfer.
MNAO is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through 620 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.
