Motoi Oyama, the long-time executive of Asics Corp. who became the Japanese company's president in 2008, was elected to a three-year term as the 13th president of the growing World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry at its annual meeting in Munich last Saturday, just a few days after turning 60 years old.
In a mission statement, Oyama listed among his goals the promotion of sustainability, corporate social responsibility and free and fair trade. The reduction in trade barriers was a major topic of a speech made in Munich by Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, at the end of WFSGI's annual meeting. He noted the growing importance of international trade and the fact it is becoming more and more complex to determine the origin of many products that are becoming “made in the world,” with materials and components coming from different sources and assembled at different sites.
Following a rotating presidency system where a different continent is represented at each election, Oyama takes the place of the American John E. Larsen from New Balance, who has led the Swiss-based organization for the past three years. Two other important Japanese executives – Kihachiro Onitsuka and Masato Mizuno – were presidents of WFSGI before. Oyama is son-in-law of the late Onitsuka, founder and former president of Asics.
Oyama started to work in the sporting goods sector 1976 for Blue Ribbon Sports, the company of Phil Knight that was importing Asics shoes into the U.S. He joined Asics in 1982 and ran its U.S. operations between 1986 and 1991. He then returned to Japan to set up its exercise walking division. Oyama began to run Asics Europe in 2001 and continued to supervise the European operations until a few days ago. In 2006 he moved back to Japan to act as senior general manager in charge of overseas operation, corporate strategy and marketing. Two years later he became president.
New on the board of directors is Jeroen M. Snijders Blok, chief operating officer of Accell Group, following the recent establishment of a dedicated section of WFSGI for bicycle manufacturers. Their affiliation has helped to boost the total membership, which now comprises 182 companies and organizations. The net total rose by 13 in 2010 and by 11 sofar this year, including the comeback of Puma.
A total of 10 members are new on WFSGI's board. Among them we can count Peter Bragdon of Columbia Sportswear, Fernando Beer of Alpargatas, Alberto Zanatta of Tecnica Group, Martin Kuenzi of Intersport International, Christian Voigt of Puma and Jay Li of Li Ning. One of the outgoing members is a former president of WFSGI, the 67-year-old Masato Mizuno, who is now vice president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, leading Japan's bid to host the Games in 2020.
Rory McMillan,director of government and public affairs at Nike's office in Brussels, is the new chairman of the organization's trade committee. He has been active for many years on the trade and customs committee of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (Fesi). In the WFSGI, McMillan takes the place of Brad Figel, who was doing a similar job at Nike and has left the company.
