By James Wells
SYDNEY: Panasonic Australia has announced the appointment of a national sales operations manager, a national channel sales manager and a marketing communications manager within its consumer electronics group.
Late this afternoon, Panasonic confirmed the resignation of Marcel Melik, who will leave the business today to pursue his own interests.
Effective immediately, Panasonic has appointed Gemma Lemieux as the replacement for Melik as marketing communications manager.
Lemieux, who has previously worked at Panasonic as group manager – mobiles within the company’s business systems group, has more recently worked with Samsung as marketing manager – telecommunications.
“We wish Marcel well for the future. He has made an important contribution in his marketing role, introducing key high-profile partnerships in the sponsorship area with the Wallabies, Billabong and the Sydney Swans,” said Panasonic Australia managing director, Toshiro Kisaka.
In other appointments, Panasonic has promoted Steve Sutherland to the position of national sales operations manager, with the responsibility for managing the state sales managers and dealer support teams.
Sutherland will continue to be based in Queensland and this role will also encompass his previous position of Queensland state sales manager.
Panasonic has also promoted Richard Tassone to the position of national channel sales manager, responsible for managing the activities of channel managers, national account executives and business development executives.
Tassone was previously channel manager – Derni (Harvey Norman).
The two appointments have been made to replace the responsibilities of the national sales manager – consumer electronics group, Paul Reid, who was promoted last month as a director of the company responsible for overseeing all divisional marketing and sales operations.
Last month Panasonic also appointed former Ingram Micro managing director, Steve Rust, to the position of deputy managing director.
Reporting directly to Kisaka, Rust is responsible for overseeing business operations and managing Panasonic’s divisional directors.