“Constantly improving to better serve our customers is the only way forward”, says WSS VP on Asia restructure

Bjorn Tonsberg, Regional Vice President said: “We are reviewing the way we do things and rebuilding the organisation to meet the challenges that the next few years will bring. Constant improvements to better serve our customers are the only way forward. With this in mind we are optimising our sales structure and investing in competence development to take advantage of opportunities in emerging market segments such as offshore and traders and charterers.” 

Part of the restructure comes from the appointment of Yoshihiro Iizuka as General Manager Japan and Jason Chew as General Manager for China. Graham Hunter, former Business Director Marine Chemicals, will take up position as Technical Sales Director based in Singapore.

Mr Hunter has decades of experience in the marine business having been General Manager for Nalfleet, the marine division of Nalco, before joining WSS in 2011. He will continue to play an instrumental role in strengthening WSS’s chemical offering to global and Asian customers with particular focus on technical competence development and strengthening customer service in this field.

Mr Iizuka, who will divide his time between Tokyo and Yokohama, has over 20 years’ experience with multinational chemical corporations. He has worked specifically within purchasing, cost accounting, and supply chain management and operations control. After graduating with a degree in Commercial Science from the University of Waseda, Yoshihiro joined Ciba-Geigy, Japan in 1985 as Chemical Buyer. In 2001, Mr Iizuka joined Syngenta Japan, K.K as Head of the Supply Chain Department before moving to Singapore to become the Hub Manager in Asia Pacific. For the past three years, he has headed up the logistics and purchasing department at iSika Ltd based in Japan.

Shanghai-based Mr Chew first joined WSS in August 2010 as Area Finance Manager for WSS North East Asia. Prior to this, he was Senior Manager, Audit at Ernst & Young Hua Ming.  A graduate from University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Mr Chew is a certified Chartered Accountant of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

In addition, WSS is increasing its footprint in China by opening agency offices in the major port cities. The company is also looking to grow its internal training programs in Japan and Korea to further strengthen its regional organisation.