Filling the shoes of the recently bumped-upstairs Shoichiro Irimajiri (who last month vacated the Sega of America presidency, concurrent with his being named representative director and president of Sega Enterprises Ltd.), Bernie Stolar, Sega of America's COO, was named president and COO.
Stolar's appointment was made "in order to create an environment in which the company's new 'super' console can win significant market share in North America once it is launched in 1999," the company said in a statement.
Coinciding with Stolar's appointment comes news that the company has promoted Yukio Aoyama from senior vice president of finance to chief financial officer and Makoto Kaneshiro from senior vice president of business planning to executive vice president of business planning and operations. Aoyama and Kaneshiro were reassigned from their positions with Sega of Japan (Sega Enterprises Ltd.) and, it is stated, will report to Stolar in order to "support Stolar's leadership in North America."