By James Wells
SYDNEY: Sony United Kingdom marketing director, Carl Rose, will return to Sony Australia this week in the newly-created role of deputy managing director.
Rose will return to Sony Australia on Wednesday 1 March to oversee the coordination of the sales and marketing functions of the business which will continue to be managed by Sony national sales manager – David Hargreaves and Sony Australia general manager – consumer marketing – Tak Akiyoshi.
Rose, Hargreaves and Akiyoshi will all report through to Sony Australia managing director Shusuke Oshima.
In April 2003, Rose was transferred from his role as director of consumer AV-IT channel and home network products marketing at Sony Australia to Sony United Kingdom as marketing director, responsible for marketing all consumer AV-IT product categories. In the UK, Rose worked for Steve Dowdle, the same man who hired him as product manager – audio accessories at Sony UK in 1986. Rose was transferred to Sony Australia in 1996.
Rose hinted at a return to Sony Australia last year by presenting one of the keynote speeches at the Narta conference in Dublin.
“I have very fond memories of my time in Australia,” Rose said in his keynote address at the conference.
“While Carl is an Englishman by birth, we are delighted to be welcoming him ‘home’ to Australia,” said a Sony Australia spokesperson last week.
Even though he holds United Kingdom and New Zealand passports, Rose has a ‘Sony Passport’ which indicates that Australia is his home country within the company.
“In three years time, if I perform well enough, then the region could offer me a role back in the Asia Pacific. There is no guarantee or certainty,” Rose said in 2003.