JTEKT Toyoda Americas Names President

JTEKT Toyoda Americas Corp. announced Michael Defer as its new president and COO, following the retirement of Howard Michael after 25 years with the Chicago-area machine tool builder. Defer joined JTEKT Toyoda having been an executive with Alfing Corp., Chiron Group, and Heller Machine Tools.

Established in 1941, JTEKT Toyoda designs and builds turning centers, vertical and horizontal machining centers, grinders, and other machine tool systems.

Defer pointed to the parent company’s reputation for reliability and production-oriented engineering, noting: “JTEKT gives us an expansive offering to customers, where we can go into many different industries. We will build on the good reputation of the Toyoda brand.”