Management

Kazuhiro Kawabata is the president of DNP IMS America Corporation. He is responsible for directing the strategies of growth for the IMSA business, and to expand customer relationships and develop new business markets. He received a Bachelors degree in Commerce from Doshisha University in Japan, and shortly thereafter joined Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. in Japan. His career with DNP has spanned 34 years, and he has held many leadership positions within the company. Between 1977-1990, Kawabata worked in the general affairs and human resources operations in diversified professional and managerial positions with responsibilities for office and personnel management operations; labor/legal issues; payroll management; budgeting; office transfer and corporate reorganization. For the next 14 years, Kawabata was assigned to the Sales and Marketing Division, Information Media Supplies (IMS) Operations’ business development. He was instrumental in achieving successful product positioning and operational excellence of dye-sublimation ribbons, thermal transfer ribbons, and photo printing systems. From 2004 to 2005, Kawabata served as Project Manager for the digital Photo Promotion Project where he managed and directed DNP’s proprietary new digital photo kiosk system—PrintRush. In this key position, Kawabata was extensively engaged in the development and marketing of the PrintRush™ system, and managed the development of software, font, and printer development; and expanded the sales territory. In 2005, he was appointed to serve as CEO of DNP PrintRush Co., Ltd and was responsible for the entire company operations which included planning and developing business objectives, organizational policies, directing and formulating the company’s financial programs, and designing public relations policies. In 2008, Kawabata returned to the IMS division as General Manager for the Sales and Marketing Division and, in 2010 he was promoted to Deputy General Manager to oversee the entire IMS operations. In this capacity, Kawabata was responsible for the overall direction of the business which included formulating and developing corporate policies and strategies, assurance of profitability, planning business strategies for bar code and photo businesses, and implementing new business strategies resulting in key growth within the IMS group. This is Kawabata’s first international assignment to the United States, and he is looking forward to spending time playing golf on the many fine courses located in the southeast.